It travelled to you folded.

So there may be a few creases. For natural fibres such as cashmere and wool that is perfectly normal, and easy to put right: the fibre is alive and settles back on its own.

To smooth it out

1. Hang the piece over the back of a chair or a drying rack.
2. Wet your palms so they are damp, not dripping, and gently pat the creases, easing them out with your hand.
3. Leave it hanging until it is completely dry. The creases will fall out by themselves.

No iron and no pulling. Natural fibre only needs a little moisture and a little time.

Wool hardly needs washing.

A knitted piece lives long and asks for little. Between wears, give it air, not water: a night over the back of a chair, minutes in a steamy bathroom, a damp cloth on a spot. A wash is for when it needs one, no more than once a season — not a rescue.

Hand wash, when it needs it

1. Fill a clean basin with lukewarm water, no warmer than 30 °C / 86 °F, and add a detergent made for wool. Ordinary powders are too harsh.
2. Submerge it, press gently so it soaks through; leave it 10–15 minutes.
3. Squeeze it softly in the water. No wringing, no stretching.
4. Rinse at the same temperature you washed in. It is the sudden change, not the warmth, that shrinks wool.

No machine washing, spinning or tumble drying: sudden change and agitation at once, and it cannot be undone.

Drying and blocking

1. Lift it out, squeeze out the water without wringing, and lay it on a clean dry towel.
2. Roll the towel and the piece up together and press the roll lightly. Do not twist it.
3. Unroll, lay it flat on a fresh towel and shape it to its measurements — the size on its card or its page. Let it dry there, away from direct sun and heaters.

This laying-out is blocking: it sets the final shape, and it is how every piece is finished before it leaves the studio.

If it has stretched out of shape

It is not damaged. Wash it and lay it flat to the measurements on your card — it will come back. Knitted wool remembers the shape it dries in.

Storing, and a word on pilling

• Folded, never hung. A drawer or a shelf. Not even one night on a hanger: its own weight pulls it out of shape.
• Pilling is normal for worn knitwear. The bobbles come off with your fingers. Skip the pill shaver: it can cut the yarn.