Washing cashmere sweater

I splurged recently and bought myself two pure cashmere sweaters. So super soft and silky I was wondering how best to wash the sweaters. The care label says to hand wash. My sweaters came with a sample packet of a cashmere detergent so I plan to use that when I need to wash the sweaters for the first time. I can buy a bottle of the detergent from the company web site but I know there are other laundry detergents for cashmere. Has anyone used The Laundress Wool and Cashemere Shampoo? It has a cedar fragrance. Is the fragrance really strong or subtle? I've read on various web sites that special cashmere detergents aren't needed. Ivory detergent, Woolite Delicates, and other mild detergents can be used. Some web sites even say that you can put a cashmere sweater into the washing machine on a gentle / delicate cycle even if the label says to hand wash. Does anyone know if this is really true or not? I really don't want to ruin my sweaters.

I would go by what the label says. I have one cashmere sweater, but it has to be dry cleaned. I didn't realize there were some out there that could be hand washed.

I haven't used a special cashmere soap. I use Woolite or equivalents, or use human hair shampoo if I can't find a Woolite type detergent. Cedar-scented detergent sounds great, though; I often am bothered by "soapy" smells. Wash cold and don't freak out if the color bleeds a bit the first time if it's a light color and possibly for many washes if it's a dark color.

Machine wash on a gentle cycle *in a lingerie bag* is essentially indistinguishable from hand washing, but I really recommend the lingerie bag.

All cashmere can be hand washed in gentle soaps, fibre-wise. Dry cleaning might be preferred by the label if it's a dark color or multiple colors (see above that dark colors can run forever) or if it's very thick because it's hard to dry it and you can misshape certain knits by wringing, or end up having it sour if it's in too humid of air to really dry. Some labels just say dry clean only on any sort of fibre that's considered to be luxury fibre, even many that can be hand washed just fine. But if you don't feel like a fibre expert, I agree to just go with the label if it says to dry clean.

Lonelocust said:

I haven't used a special cashmere soap. I use Woolite or equivalents, or use human hair shampoo if I can't find a Woolite type detergent.

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I have a ton of cashmere sweaters (cheaper brands, but still pure cashmere ), and I've always used Woolite or shampoo. Had some them for about 10 years now, and they're still going strong I have a 'wool wash' cycle on my machine, and that works pretty well too, if I haven't the energy to hand wash or they're extra dirty (I wear them to keep warm at the stables, and sometimes hand washing just doesn't cut it ).

I use Woolite Delicates for some of my "good clothes" that are hand wash only so I'll try it with the cashemere. The cashmere is pretty lightweight and a raspberry color. Some of the cashemere sweaters from where I bought mine can be put in the washing machine. I guess my sweaters are too delicate for the washing machine.

@Columbine the sweaters came from your side of the pond There was an ad in the Sunday magazine for cashmere sweaters at a special US introductory price. The one sweater in the ad looked great so I looked online to see what else the retailer had. Lots of pure cashmere sweaters in great styles Many are too pricey for me. I bought the sweater that was in the ad along with another sweater I saw in the sale section. I'm now tempted to buy a set of cashemere wrist warmers and socks that are currently on sale

The UK site: https://www.purecollection.com/#

The US site: https://www.us.purecollection.com/

I have US coupon codes if anyone is interested:

USCN0104 for 25% off, excluding sale items. Expires April 30, 2016

USCZ0102 for 25% off, exclsuding sale items. Expires Jun 1, 2016

USCB0101 for 20% off, excluding sale items.