Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq
Hand wash knitted cashmere in cool or lukewarm water with a wool or cashmere detergent, soak it briefly, rinse at the same temperature you washed it, and press the water out without ever wringing. Dry it flat on a towel, reshaped while damp, away from radiators and sunlight. Woven cashmere — scarves, coats, blankets — is the exception, and that goes to a dry cleaner.
Cashmere has a reputation for fragility that it has not entirely earned. The fibre survives a hand wash perfectly well. What it does not survive is one specific combination of conditions, and once you know what that combination is, the rest of the instructions stop being a list to memorise.
Cashmere is goat undercoat, and that changes the rules
Cashmere is not sheep’s wool, but it is wool in the way that matters: a protein fibre with a scaled surface. The Woolmark Company describes what those scales do when the wrong three things arrive together — “When exposed to heat and moisture the scales lift and with mechanical agitation start to lock onto the scales of other fibres in a ratchet-like mechanism” (machine washable wool).
Heat, moisture, agitation. Water alone is harmless. Water plus a hot tap plus a drum turning for forty minutes is not.
And here is the part worth being blunt about: cashmere does not shrink, it felts, and the difference decides whether you can fix it. Woolmark’s own word for the process is irreversible — “This process is irreversible and leads to fibre entanglement, fabric densification or garment shrinkage.” The conditioner-soak-and-stretch rescue that recovers a shrunken cotton t-shirt is working on a different failure entirely, which is set out in why do clothes shrink in the wash. On a felted sweater it achieves nothing except a wet sweater.
What cashmere adds on top of wool is fineness. The fibres are shorter and thinner than sheep’s wool, which is why the fabric feels the way it does and also why loose fibre ends work their way to the surface so readily. Johnstons of Elgin, who have been making the stuff in Scotland since 1797, treat this as expected rather than as a defect: “After the first few wears, you may notice small fibre balls or pilling on your cashmere. This is a natural process as loose fibres rub together” (caring for cashmere). A cashmere comb, used lightly, is the whole answer.
Knitted cashmere gets washed at home; woven cashmere goes to the cleaner
Almost every cashmere guide online gives one method for everything, and that is the single most common error on the topic. The construction matters more than the fibre does.
A knitted sweater, cardigan or beanie is a loop structure. It can be submerged, pressed and reshaped while damp, because the loops let the fabric move and settle back. A woven scarf, stole, coat or blanket is a fixed warp-and-weft grid, often with a brushed surface and sometimes with interlinings and tailoring underneath it, and none of that recovers from being soaked and dried flat.
Johnstons splits it exactly that way: “For woven cashmere pieces such as scarves and coats, we recommend professional dry cleaning.” Between cleans, their advice for woven pieces is to shake and air them, and to spot-clean marks with a barely damp cloth rather than washing the whole thing.
So check the structure before the label. If you can see interlocking loops, read on. If you can see a woven grid, stop here and find a cleaner.
How to wash cashmere by hand, step by step
Six steps, and none of them involve equipment you do not already own.
- Comb the pills off first, while the garment is dry. Pills that go into water come out of it worked further in.
- Dissolve the detergent before the sweater goes in. Use a wool or cashmere wash. Avoid anything with enzymes, which are made to digest protein and cannot tell a stain from the fibre, and keep bicarbonate away from it: Tide’s own page says the high pH can “damage natural, protein-based fibers like wool, cashmere, and silk” (baking soda and vinegar in laundry). Skip fabric softener too — cashmere softens by itself with wear.
- Submerge it and leave it alone. Woolmark’s figure for wool is a ten-minute soak; Johnstons says a few minutes for cashmere. Either is fine. What is not fine is swirling it around for ten minutes, because that is the agitation half of felting delivered by hand.
- Squeeze gently, never wring or stretch. Johnstons: “Gently squeeze the fabric without wringing or stretching.”
- Rinse at the washing temperature. Johnstons: “Rinse several times with water of the same temperature.” Woolmark’s wool instruction differs — rinse “firstly in lukewarm water, then finally in cold water” (how to wash wool). The two authorities genuinely disagree about the last rinse. What both exclude is a hot one, so that is the rule to carry away.
- Press the water out between two towels. Lay the sweater flat on a towel, roll the towel up with the garment inside, and press. Do not lift a soaking sweater by the shoulders.
The general technique is the same one used for every delicate fibre: how to hand wash clothes.
If your machine has a genuine wool programme and the label permits it, that route works too, in a mesh bag on the lowest spin — the mechanics are the same as for how to wash a wool sweater.
The two numbers the cashmere sellers cannot agree on
Washing frequency is the question everyone asks and nobody answers consistently, and the disagreement is between people who all make cashmere for a living.
Johnstons recommends “gentle hand washing after every three to four wears.” Quince, selling Mongolian cashmere, says the opposite end — most pieces can be worn five to six times between washes. Neither is wrong. Cashmere worn next to the skin on a warm day needs washing sooner than a sweater worn over a shirt in January, and the honest answer is that the number depends on what the garment touched.
The temperature band splits the same way: Johnstons says lukewarm, several sellers say cold, and Woolmark’s figure for hand washing wool is “approximately 30°C”. Take the bottom of that band. Nothing is gained by warmer water, and heat is one of the three ingredients that felt the fibre.
Dry it flat, store it clean, and the moths lose interest
Drying is where more cashmere is lost than in the wash, and the failure is usually not shrinkage but sag. A wet knitted garment hung on a line or a hanger stretches under the weight of the water it is holding, and it does not come back.
Johnstons’ instruction is three short sentences: “Lay the knitwear flat on a towel to dry.” / “Gently reshape and smooth it while damp.” / “Avoid direct heat and never tumble dry.” The reshaping is the step people skip, and it is free — a minute spent squaring the shoulders and easing the body back to its proper width while it is still damp decides the shape it keeps.
Store it folded rather than hung, for the same reason. And store it clean, because moths are not after the cashmere itself so much as what a worn garment carries into the wardrobe with it. Johnstons adds cedar wood balls as a natural repellent and breathable storage rather than sealed plastic, which traps moisture against the fibre.
FAQ
Can you machine wash cashmere?
Often, if the garment is knitted, the label allows it and your machine has a real wool or hand-wash programme — mesh bag, cold, lowest spin. Hand washing remains the lower-risk option, and woven cashmere should not go in at all.
What detergent should you use on cashmere?
A wool or cashmere wash with no enzymes. Biological detergents contain protease enzymes designed to break down protein, and cashmere is protein. Skip bleach, skip bicarbonate and skip fabric softener.
Why did my cashmere sweater shrink?
It probably felted rather than shrank. Heat, water and agitation together make the fibre scales interlock, and Woolmark describes that process as irreversible. There is no reliable way back.
How often should cashmere be washed?
Somewhere between three and six wears, depending on how close it was worn to the skin. Airing a sweater overnight between wears genuinely works, because wool fibres release odour readily.
Can you put cashmere in the tumble dryer?
No. Flat drying on a towel, reshaped while damp, is the method, and it is also what protects the shape. Heat and tumbling together are the two felting ingredients in one appliance.
Is pilling a sign of poor-quality cashmere?
Not on its own. Loose fibre ends migrating to the surface is normal behaviour for a short, fine fibre, and it happens most where the garment rubs. A cashmere comb removes pills without damaging the knit.
Cashmere is less delicate than its price suggests
The fibre is not waiting to be destroyed. It is waiting for one specific accident — heat and agitation arriving at the same time — and a basin of cool water with a wool wash in it never produces that accident.
Keep it flat, keep it cool, keep your hands still, and the sweater will outlast several of the ones you paid less for.
