But don’t despair. The good news is that you can get your pure wool throw looking as good as new pretty easily.
The little balls are known as pills, and pilling happens to many natural fibres, but is especially common in wool and cashmere. They are caused when loose fibres within the weave make their way up to the surface of the fabric. Once on the surface, they cling onto each other and bunch together resulting in the pesky little balls.
1. Stay on top of general upkeep
By shaking or beating your pure wool throw regularly, you dislodge all the loose fibres, therefore they don’t hang around on the surface of the throw ready to get matted up every time you make contact with it. We recommend giving your blanket a good shake every week. Every so often, hang it on a line and whack it with a tennis racket.
2. Iron and steam your throws
Pure wool throw can take up to 30% its weight in water so using your iron’s wool setting and pumping steam into the throw will give it extra volume and work any low level pilling back into the fabric. The key is to shake, steam, iron, shake and hang over a banister or lay flat to air off. The heat of the steam also kills off dust mites and bacteria so it’s like a little bit of a clean too.
3. Shave
Not for the faint hearted, but it’s possible to shave your pure wool throws and get it up like new. This works in much the same way as the de-fuzzier. Make sure the blade is new and really lightly drag the razor over the surface.
BE CAREFUL though, if you press too hard you can slice into the yarn and cause a hole. It’s always good to practice on a bit of old fabric until you get the hang of it, but once you do, this method becomes weirdly satisfying. We wouldn’t recommend shaving anything textured or chunky and treat the throw as carefully as you would if you were shaving sensitive skin. If you get the knack though, the result is amazing!
