Pilling - what you need to know

Wouldn’t it be great if this didn’t occur? Unfortunately, no matter how good the quality, this does happen on all knitted garments, including your lovely delicate cashmere.

The trick is to know how to minimise it and how to remove these little ‘balls’ safely.

Firstly, what is it exactly, and why does it happen? On A grade cashmere especially, due to the long fibres, the loose fibres move to the surface and tangle a little, forming small balls or bobbles. It is certainly not an indication of poor quality, rather the opposite. This will happen after the first few wears and periodically thereafter.

It will happen more in high areas of friction i.e. under arms and down the sides of the sweater, but also if there is rubbing from a handbag, seatbelt or contact with sharp jewellery or other objects.

These small bobbles can be removed easily with a special cashmere comb, like our Modern Love Cashmere Comb.

Very gently tease the small bobbles, holding the comb on an angle, away from the sweater and remove. Don’t drag the comb across the entire garment, just hold on an angle and go after each one. Never use scissors to remove as this can damage the remaining fibres.

Cashmere really is such a wonderful fibre and, when cared for properly, gets softer and more beautiful as it wears. So it is important to look after it.

See more in my article "Cashmere care = low cost per wear" to see how to rest it (yes, really! - giving it a rest and air between wears helps the fibres to revive and bounce back), wash it, and store it.