Start with the part nobody selling cashmere likes to say out loud: all of it pills. There is no grade, no price and no brand that produces a cashmere knit which never balls up somewhere.
So the question of how to stop cashmere from pilling is really a question of slowing it down, and of dealing with the pills properly when they arrive. Both are straightforward once you know why the fibre behaves this way.
Why cashmere pills
A pill is a small ball of loose fibre ends, tangled together by friction and still anchored to the surface of the cloth.
Cashmere is unusually prone to it for two reasons. The fibre is very fine, around 14 to 19 microns, so it bends and tangles easily. It is also short, typically 25 to 40 millimetres, which means a great many fibre ends are held in any given length of yarn. Every one of those ends is a pill waiting to happen.
That fineness is the whole point of cashmere. The softness and the pilling come from the same property, and you cannot have one without the other.
Does pilling mean the cashmere is poor?
Not on its own. What matters is the pattern.
Good cashmere pills early and then settles. The first few wears shed out the short surface fibres left over from spinning and finishing, and once those are gone the rate drops sharply. Poor cashmere keeps producing pills indefinitely, because the yarn itself is built from shorter fibres that continue working loose.
So the honest test is time. Heavy pilling in the first fortnight is normal. Heavy pilling still happening six months later means short fibre in the yarn, and no amount of care will fix it.
Two-ply and tightly spun yarns pill less than loosely spun single-ply, which is one reason a heavier knit usually wears better than a very fine one at the same price.
Where it happens, and why
Pilling is friction, so it appears exactly where a garment rubs.
- Underarms and sides. Constant arm movement against the body.
- Across the back and one shoulder. Bag straps and seatbelts.
- Cuffs and forearms. Desks, sleeves rubbing inside a coat.
- The front hem. Anywhere a jacket or waistband sits against it.
Knowing the map is useful, because most of the prevention is simply reducing rubbing at those four points.
The wear habits that make the difference
Rest it between wears. Give a knit at least a day off, so the fibres recover their loft rather than staying compressed and rubbing flat.
Watch what goes over the top. A rough tweed coat or a canvas bag strap does more damage in an afternoon than a week of ordinary wear. Switch the shoulder you carry a bag on, or carry it in your hand.
Wear something smooth underneath. A cotton tee under a knit reduces the fibre movement that starts pills in the first place.
How to wash it
Washing correctly matters more than washing rarely, though both help. Cashmere does not need cleaning after every wear, and airing it overnight handles most of what a wash would.
- Turn the garment inside out. Any pilling then happens on the inside face.
- Hand wash in cool water with a wool detergent, or use a machine wool cycle at 30 degrees or below.
- Skip fabric softener. It coats the fibre, flattens the loft and makes shedding worse.
- Do not wring. Press the water out, then roll the garment in a towel and press again.
- Dry flat, reshaped by hand, away from direct heat. Never hang a wet knit.
Hanging a cashmere knit at all is a mistake. The shoulders stretch under the weight of the garment. Fold it.
Removing pills without wrecking the knit
Never pull a pill off. It is still attached, and pulling drags a length of good fibre out with it, thinning the fabric a little more each time.
Lay the garment flat on a hard surface, smoothed out with no fabric bunched underneath. Then work in short strokes in one direction only.
- A cashmere comb. Slowest, safest, best for a knit you intend to keep for years.
- A sweater stone. Fast on a chunky knit, too aggressive for a very fine one.
- A battery fabric shaver. Quick and effective, but let it rest on the surface. Pressing down cuts into the knit and can open a hole.
De-pill after washing rather than before. Clean fibres release more easily, and you are not grinding grit into the surface.
Storing it
Store clean, folded, and in something breathable. Moth larvae feed on the residue of skin and food in worn fibres rather than on the wool itself, so a knit put away dirty is the one that gets eaten.
Cedar or lavender help a little. A sealed cotton bag helps considerably more.
What this means for the rest of your knitwear
We do not stock cashmere, so take this as fibre knowledge rather than a sales pitch. The physics is identical across every knitted piece you own, and the same habits apply to a merino jumper, a brushed sweatshirt or a fleece.
The general rule is that knits pill and wovens do not, or at least not in the same way. A knitted structure holds loops of yarn with fibre ends free to migrate to the surface. A woven cloth locks the yarn in place under tension, which is why a linen shirt softens and creases with age instead of balling up. If pilling is what puts you off a garment, the fabric construction predicts it better than the price does.
Our own sweaters and sweatshirts follow the same rules: cool wash, inside out, dry flat, comb rather than pull.
Where to go next
For fabric weight and how it changes the way a knit wears, read t-shirt GSM explained. For washing without shrinking anything, see care instructions for cotton and how to wash technical fabrics.