Womens jumpers and knitwear, and whether yours will bobble

Will it bobble, and whose fault is that

Everybody writes about how to remove bobbles. Nobody tells you, before you buy, which jumper will bobble and why it is not a fault.

Woolmark's position is unambiguous. Pilling, which is the same thing as bobbling, is caused by rubbing during wear. It forms where friction is highest: elbows, underarms, and wherever a bag strap sits. Because pilling is so complex, nobody can guarantee it will not occur, and it depends on many factors including the action of the wearer.

That is the wool marketing body itself saying it, which matters, because otherwise it reads like a shop making excuses.

What reduces it on the design side is longer fibres, higher twist and higher cover factor. That is genuinely much of what separates an expensive jumper from a cheap one, and it is a better thing to judge than the label.

What reduces it on your side: turn the garment inside out before washing, avoid fabric softener, and cut down on abrasion where you can. For pills already formed, a battery de-piller is low cost and very effective, and brings a jumper back to looking new.

And the fibre matters. A fine-gauge merino, a brushed lambswool and an alpaca, silk and mohair blend all behave differently. Eribe's Trilogy yarn, for instance, is built around baby alpaca, mulberry silk and super kid mohair, which is exactly the sort of blend that will shed and pill early in its life. That is not a criticism of Eribe, it is what those fibres do, and knowing it beforehand is better than discovering it.

The fibres, with numbers

Merino is generally under 22 microns. Human hair runs 50 to 100 microns, which is the comparison that actually answers whether merino itches.

Cashmere, by the industry benchmark, is the fine dehaired undercoat of a cashmere goat, averaging no more than 19 microns, with no more than 3% by weight of fibres above 30 microns and a coefficient of variation not exceeding 24%. That is a US labelling rule, so treat it as the industry standard rather than UK law.

Alpaca is graded by micron: grade 0 at 15.0 to 16.9, grade 1 at 17.0 to 19.9, grade 2 at 20.0 to 22.9, and so on up to grade 6 at 32.0 to 34.9. Worth knowing: the alpaca association deliberately chose not to attach names like baby, royal baby or superfine to those grades, because they found the terms inconsistent worldwide. So baby alpaca on a label is a marketing term with no agreed micron behind it.

Mohair, by Australian classing, runs from fine kid at finer than 25 microns through to hair at 36 microns and coarser. The standard gives no upper bound and the published classing sets disagree above that, so we have not quoted one. Mohair South Africa publishes no micron figures at all.

Lambswool is wool 50mm or shorter from a sheep's first shearing, at around seven months. It is defined by staple length and age, not fineness, which is precisely why the question of whether lambswool is warmer than merino has no clean answer.

Eribe describes its Kinross line as Scottish spun, fully traceable and RWS certified non-mulesed. Their Shetland style wool is spun in Yorkshire from New Zealand wools. The certification wording applies to specific lines rather than to everything Eribe makes, so check the individual piece.

Ranked by fineness: cashmere, then merino, then fine alpaca, then the finest kid mohair. Lambswool cannot be placed on that scale.

How to wash it

Wool should go on the wool setting, usually gentle action at 40 degrees, or on a cold wash or delicates cycle if your machine has no wool programme. Hand washing is lukewarm water at around 30 degrees with a ten minute soak. Use a neutral, mild detergent, preferably a Woolmark recommended one.

Dry flat, in the shade. Never hang a wet jumper, because it stretches under its own weight and that damage is permanent.

Brush wool lengthwise after wearing to lift surface soil before it becomes a stain. Hang it in a steamy bathroom to freshen it, or lay it flat for an hour to clear odours. Store woven wool on shaped or padded hangers. Before putting anything away for the season, make sure it is clean, because food stains and body oils attract moths, then pack it in airtight bags or containers.