Dreft is a long standing brand name now more associated with gentle laundry detergent for babies than the original Dreft soap flakes. However lots of companies from large specialist producers like Savon de Marseille to small independent soap makes like the UK based Emma’s Soap offer a soap flakes for laundry product.

I use days like 1st January, what to do on New Year’s Day for a hand wash.

And nothing better to care for wool, cashmere and fine knit actually you want to look after and bring back to new.

I mix a handful if Dreft soap flakes, no parabens, into Luke warm water, (the cooler the better, hot water causes shrinkage)

I de bobble everything by hand first. I can do it quickly. If you’ve never done it before you can buy a bit of kit, a de bobbling gadget I’ve heard good reports about but never used myself.

I don’t wring anything out, just gently fold the knitwear and transfer it to another bowl.

When all the pieces are washed. I rinse them again in cold water.

Then spin them in the washing machine on a short cycle to get the water out and lay them all out to dry overnight on a big bed sheet. I use my spare bedroom for this.

You can use a cap of fabric softener in the final rinse if you want but I tend to find I don’t need it and the less chemicals going into the waste water supply the better for me.

Dreft is an old fashioned miracle for knitwear if you can find it.