Care

ERIBÉ strongly believes that clothing and accessories made from wool can form the basis of your capsule wardrobe. Our genuine woollen products will look amazing for many years to come, but only if you look after them properly. We have put together this simple guide to help you care for your woollen garments.


PILLING

If your garment or accessory is made from quality natural fibres it will pill. Pilling is in fact a sign of quality. It is perfectly normal. Essentially the loose fibres near the surface rub together during movement and form little balls of wool.  Our top tip for caring for pilling: After the garment has completely dried, simply pick any bobbles off - or use a hand-held sweater comb and gently remove the small pills. With Alpine cardigans, after two brushes with a comb, pilling will stop altogether.

REMOVING YOUR GARMENTS

  • When you are removing your woollen garments, it is best to be as gentle as possible.
  • Take your arms out of the sleeves first and then gently pull the garment over your head.
  • Pulling at the neck to take your pullover off will stress the collar and damage the seam between collar and garment.

WASHING YOUR WOOLLEN GARMENTS

  1. You can launder your woollens at a dry cleaners. However, we recommend hand-washing your woollen garments by following these simple steps:
  2. Add a small amount of liquid hand-soap. Never use regular washing detergent. Soak in lukewarm water for 5 minutes.
  3. To clean the garment you must gently squeeze, without rubbing, the garment in the water.
  4. Rinse in plenty of clean slightly warm water. A useful tip is to add half a teaspoon of almond oil to the final rinse. It helps to restore the natural oil (lanolin) to the wool and gives it a pleasant aroma.
  5. Lay your damp garment on a large bath towel. Gently roll the towel and the garment together much like a Swiss roll. Rolling it out in this manner will remove the excess water.      
  6. Pull gently to size. Dry flat on a clean towel away from direct heat sources such as radiators.
  7. Lastly, ensure the garment is fully dry before you store it away.

STORING: EVERYDAY
Generally, woollen items are better folded and placed on a shelf, as using coat hangers to store them may result in stretching the seams.
Please do not spray your woollen items with perfume or cologne as it makes the fibres brittle and also can attract moths.

STORING: LONG-TERM
When the days start getting longer and the sun is shining you may find that you want to put your bulkier woollen items away until wintertime.

  1. We recommend washing and drying each piece and placing them in an airtight plastic container or a vacuum-pack bag.
  2. Inside the bags please also include something to repel moths and insects. You could include sachets of: mothballs, cedar wood or herbs.
  3. Place the container somewhere cold, dry and well ventilated.


MOTHS
If you happen to develop a moth problem - small holes appearing in your woollen items - there will be small beige moths flying around in the evening (usually May to October). If you think you have moths, it is essential to protect all your woollen garments:

  1. Place them into sealed plastic bags and then store them in your freezer for two weeks.
  2. We recommend airing your house as much as possible.
  3. Purchase some moth traps until they have been eradicated.
  4. Only when you have solved your moth problem should you return your woollens to your wardrobe.

For more information see: https://www.mothkiller.co.uk/  or https://critterkill.co.uk/

PERFUME
It is important to avoid spraying perfume, cologne, deodorants and antiperspirants on your knitwear as long-term use will make the yarn brittle and it will break. Moths can also be attracted to perfume so this is another reason to avoid this