10.04.2008

mountains of cashmere

So here's a windfall of cashmere sweaters fresh from the thrift stores and ready to process.

  1. First I remove all the price tags (wouldn't want them gunking up my washing machine).
  2. Then I wash them all with warm water on normal cycle with laundry soap - most of the time I use lavender laundry soap, but I recently ran out and haven't had the time to go buy more. Ok, it's on the to-do list.
  3. The dryer. Traditionally used in our house to shrink my favorite clothes, I use it here to give the cashmere one last chance to shrink (or full) if it wants. 99% of the time it does not. I do receive a few fulled sweaters, but in general there is very little shrinkage. Oh, I use medium heat - as I am sure the majority of you would also.
  4. Off to the cutting board - and since this is where you may get bored, I will make it brief. I cut the pieces out for the scarves.
  5. Then I sew them.
  6. Then I press them with my Rowenta Steam Iron - with the steam on MAX. Cashmere loves steam - and it wrinkles easily. Steam = no more wrinkles (until you wad it up in your bag because you went in to a store that had the heat turned up too high and your neck started sweating. Then when you went back out into the freezing weather and you pulled the scarf out of you bag to put it on and you realize it looks worse than a discarded draft to a cheap novel. That's when you need a little steamer to pick you up. [editors note: don't google "steamer" - you may end up with alternative definitions that are so far from what I intended that it may scare you. Suffice it to say that I am talking about an electronic gadget that heats water up to the point that it produces steam and is used for removing wrinkles from clothing.])

And there you have it.

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