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So I just bought my first "nice" merino wool (Peregrine) cardigan. Care tips?

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LookinSharp24

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
has anyone heard of the brand Peregrine?

regardless, this thing is built nice and heavy - made in England.

instructions are to hand wash - which i did. but man, was that a pain in the rear. the thing must have weighed 15 pounds and took about 10 minutes to ring out.

does it make more sense to get this type of clothing dry cleaned or is hand washing really the way to go?

also, any storage tips? how long should a well-made wool cardigan last?

thanks!
 
#4 ·
If it's actually dirty it's best to hand wash; if you're cleaning it for storage (as one always should to prevent moth damage) it's easier to just dry clean it.

(If you do handwash, Woolite, and don't "wring" the sweater like you would a towel, but have a few bath towels on hand - washing a sweater is already a major project, so why not? - and use those to remove water. Basically lay sweater on towel, roll it up, squeeze, unroll, repeat a few times with new towels. Then dry on a rack, not on a line.)

As for longevity? Practically forever. I have a cashmere cardigan I bought as a graduate student (maybe around 1988), a relatively chunky one (Murray Allan), to keep in the cold basement lab I worked/studied in; it looks as good as new, though I've replaced buttons over time. That's 30 years.

My father has a cardigan *he* bought in college that he still bangs around in; he's 78. I used to wear it as a kid sometimes (emulating Mr. Rogers, I think). But just for time scale, that sweater dates from the Eisenhower era, and has seen twelve Presidents come and go. So they can last awhile! (Okay, granted, his *looks* it, but it remains serviceable as a house cardigan...)

DH
 
#5 ·
I have a Peregrine Cardigan my wife gifted to me four or five years back. It received fairly regular wear prior to our migration south, and has seen much more limited wear here in central Florida. The wife tells me she has hand washed the garment two or perhaps three times and it seems to have tolerated the laundering process quite nicely. As for how long a cardigan might last, I have several cardigans that have survived well over a decades use and seem to have a whole lot of years of service left in them. Somewhat consistent with member Dhaller's Fathers experience I have a wool cardigan my Mom knit and gave to me when I was a sophomore in college (just less than 50 years ago) and it remains in my closet to this day. Other than perhaps from a sizing perspective, that treasured garment is still very serviceable! ;)
 
#7 ·
LookinSharp24 said:
this is awful. this thing still isn't fully dry (cleaned it 3 days ago) and there was a very odd smell when cleaning it.
Click to expand...
Are you drying it on a rack? Or laying it flat? You definitely need a rack for thick sweaters. The dryer it is when you lay it on the rack, the better.

Also, be sure the area is well-ventilated; I often set up my drying rack on the terrace, if weather is appropriate.

As for the smell? Wet wool (to me) stinks, but of course there could be other factors (like the fact that in some very old-school mills, the wool is washed with sheep's urine - a natural source of ammonia - to ready it for dying. This can be quite noticeable when the sweater is first washed. More a factor in things like Aran knits, though.)

DH
 
#8 ·
I put my sweaters on a predecessor of the Leifheit Pegasus V Drying Rack, with half of the sweater on each side. That allows gravity to remove a surprising amount of water from the wool. When the dripping stops, I gently squeeze the fabric at the neck and hem, and then move the rack from the bathtub to the basement (mine is not damp). A fan aimed at the sweater greatly shortens the time for the drying to complete. Rotate the rack when the side of the sweater facing the fan is noticeably drier.

For detergent, I use Forever New (the granular version), which was recommended to me by the home economist at Pendleton Woolen Mills years ago. I have started to use it on Pendleton Umatilla cloth shirts. The odd thing is that the surface of the fabric does stay new looking for a longer time, compared to washing the shirt in dish washing liquid.
 
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