De-pilling is magic 🎩 It instantly makes things look brand new again which makes you feel all put together, love what you have and not long for something shiny and new. Find out all about pilling and what to do about the little blighters below.

Why does wool pill?

Pilling is a natural characteristic of wool. It can be more or less intense due to various factors from the softness of the wool - fluffier softer wool usually means more pilling, the spin of the yarn or the moisture content of the wool. If you take a close look at a wool garment, you might notice tiny little fibres poking out of the stitches. Those are simply the ends of the wool hairs. We value wool clothing that is as close to natural as possible, for example we don’t like wool coated in plastic resins (hello Superwash) or those that use chemicals like formaldehyde to trim or seal the fibres (hello "Anti-Pilling" treatments). We like wool just as nature intended.

Each wool fibre has tiny natural barbs, a bit like the hooks on a piece of Velcro. When your garment rubs against another fabric, those barbs can catch and gently pull the fibres out of the yarn. Over time, they twist together and form little balls on the surface, and becomes what we call pilling. That's why a place subject to friction will attract more pilling, like under the arms or around the hips, or if you're wearing your jumper under a more structured/rough fabric like the lining of a coat that rubs against the jumper, that can cause additional pilling. 

How can I reduce Pilling?

Pilling is inevitable with well used wool clothing or soft furnishings in your home. If your wool garments are dried out they tend to pill more due to static. To reduce pilling slightly moisten wool clothing once a week with a water mist to keep the concentration of humidity of the wool high. Don’t dry wool products in direct sunlight or near a heater - they dry out very quickly.  Lanolin coats the wool fibres in a protective coating and reduces pilling so replace lost lanolinevery four washes. When spritzing wool, add a little lanolin conditioner to the spray water.

Can I remove pilling? 

✂️ Yes! It's effective and addictive! To remove pills these are our top 3 favourite de-pillers:

⚡ The Electric Fabric Shaver Classic 500 ⚡

This plug in Fabric Shaver is soooo much better than those battery operated ones. It works like magic and restores knitwear to new without snagging or damaging the fabric.  It’s our bestselling de-piller.  You can even buy replacement blades! Amy from @foundlittletreasures posted this amazing Before and After on Insta a while back and it demonstrates just how effective this awesome gadget is. Such a good investment for all wool lovers.

💯 Original Wonderbrush® Beechwood Clothes Brush 💯

The Wonderbrush is an absolute home essential! A brilliant clothes brush with its specially designed curved bristles. So effective at removing dirt, lint, animal hair and pilling from your woollies and around the home. The bent bristles adapt to all fabric structures. Use before washing or to refresh clothes between washes. Excellent for removing dried mud from outerwear so that dirty garments can be worn again, saving on washing. 

Cleans areas where lint rollers can't reach. Brushing clothes in hard to reach places like collars & pockets can remove moth eggs trapped in secret spots.  Quick, easy and so thorough! It's child's play. Here is Lailoken de-fuzzing his Padraig Slippersand little woollen knitted toys. The fuzz in the brush is easily removed with a fork. 

Find out more about or order the Wonderbrush here

♾️ Super Eezy Fabric Comb ♾️ 

Great customer reviews and made in Australia since 1972. A classic laundry accessory to maintain and care for your Wardrobe and home textiles. 

It's a manual Fabric Comb, highly effective for removing lint, pilling and dust from chunky textiles as well as pet hair and pills on all home soft furnishings. Great for Woollykins medium-thick knits, boiled wool jackets and blankets! They are the ones that make those dinky small fabric combs, those small pocket depillers work quite well on finer knits like our Engel wool/silk base layers.

Find out more about the Super Eezy Fabric Comb here

What can I do with the wool lint collected? 

👍 Dispose of your lint in your worm farm or use it as mulch in the garden - pure wool is nitrogen rich and great for the soil. Unless it contains microplastics from synthetic blends 👎. You can also collect it up to stuff in small homemade toys or wet felt it together to make small ornaments. 

Please do share your favourite tips for sorting out those little fuzz balls on wool clothing. There are age old methods from using a dry crust of bread to a pumice stone or a wet razor. Humans have been obsessing over de-pilling for as long as there have been sheep. 😆