You realize that you can pay anywhere from $49.99 for a Charter Club Cashmere from Macy's to $899 up at I. Magnin to buy a quality cashmere or wool sweater. Once you get that fabulous piece, you need to take really good care of it. It's really a moral issue! Firstly, the very fiber is exceedingly rare in all the world, so that in itself makes it your responsibility to treat your new cashmere as an object of art--regardless of how much you paid for it. Additionally, cashmere requires a great deal of hand crafting even for items that are manufactured on machines and are not hand knit. Actually, owning a cashmere sweater or scarf is a real rite of passage, actually!

Here are a few tips for keeping your beautiful sweater lovely for many years:

• I once ruined a favorite cashmere sweater by wearing it with my signature gigantic gold pendant that hangs from a chain. Just the swinging around of the pendant caused my sweater to pill and pull and totally lose its texture and nap--permanently. Cashmere is soft and fine. Wear something fine and soft with it---like a scarf--some beautiful pearls---a dainty gold chain with a dainty little pendant---keep the bold stuff for your chunky knits....better proportion anyway!
• Don't wear your sweater more often than once every 3 days. It may sound silly, but cashmere is a natural fiber that is dyed with organic dyes. They need to breathe even more than other woven fibers.
• Cashmere will pill after you wear it. You should remove pills by simply pulling them off. Don't ever brush or shave a cashmere knit. It is the nature of the beast and isn't really a negative characteristic. This is caused by abrasion from your cell phone, jewelry, jackets, etc. It won't happen to your very fine knits as much as it will to your fat, 3 and 4 ply knits.
• Never hang your cashmere! In fact, never hang your sweaters! They should be carefully folded in thirds (not in half). Folding in thirds prevents that unsightly fold down the center of the garment and folding will help your sweater keep its shape.
• Don't crowd your sweaters in the drawers...cashmere needs to breath. You will also reduce the fleece or the nap of the weave if you pile them on top of eachother too densely.

I hope this helps!