Usually the only things you want to avoid with wool are enzymes. Vaska does not contain them. I've used it to wash wool mattress pad covers I have for 3 of my beds. They always come out nice and smelling lovely. Not to confuse matters but this is an excellent product for wool - Eucalan. They have a great how to section with info on caring for wool items. Here is a link that might be useful: Eucalan

That is a good idea. I'll have to save some of my old sweaters...

London, where I am now, got about a foot of snow on Monday and Tuesday, and it's been a few degrees below freezing. On Tuesday the landlord's son phoned to ask how my driveway was, and I could see dirt on it. Landlord was at their newly-purchased cottage about 80 mi. n. of Toronto for the weekend and the family told him to stay there, so he returned home last evening (Wed.), had to detour around a 17-car pileup on the freeway about 30 mi. e. of London, came to check on me on his way home: nice guy While at a neighbour's on Tues., we were thinking that travelling north a few miles near the storm going through London was not a good idea ... ... but when I left, being rather addicted to the internet, I turned north instead of south ... ... and got the 10 miles to the village where I visit the library without incident. A few hours later, after dark, when I started home, the roads were good, except for a short space beside a farnmer's field where the road isn't higher, but I could get through using part of the far lane ... and there's very little traffic on that road. Also, had it been bad, I'd have gone back and taken another route. Plus ... I had a shovel in the car. And extra coats, in case of getting storm-stayed. Got home without incident. Bright and sunny today. Oh, yes - and I needed to go to town yesterday, which was a rather quiet day (but London was still digging itself out, and many of the side streets were still impassable: schools and libraries closed, which caused me an extra run of several miles, buses not running). While there, I got some new tires on, as mine were really bald (about as bald as I). I travelled to the village where I often go to the library ... and it was open. So I got to post on the KT last evening. Ole joyful ... fairly well clad, with several layers ... and these "layers" are not hens: it's only I that lays the eggs, here

I LOVE cashmere and have collected many sweaters, hats gloves, etc over a long period of time. I also knit and often use cashmere or cashmere blend yarn. Cashmere will become brittle and the fiber will break down from dry cleaning, become rough and eventually fall apart. I wash all my woolens in cold water and moisturizing shampoo not Woolite. A yarn spinner once told me that Woolite and other detergents would dry out the wool. I actually will often wash it in my front loader on the wool cycle but also hand wash roll in a cotton towel to remove moisture and dry flat. At one time I had a large screen on legs to lay the items on. Cashmere comes from special goats soft fur and they are outside in the rain, snow etc. So water is fine. For piling if it's bad I use the little sweater combs from Bed Bath and Beyond but remember that is actually shaving the sweater a little. If its not too bad I sit in front of the tv and pick the balls off. Some wools pill more than others. There are different grades of yarn used and the shorter the fibers the more the pilling.