Air rather than wash
Wool cleans itself remarkably well if given light and air. Hang the blanket over a rail on a dry morning twice a season, and wash at most yearly, cold, on a wool cycle or by hand.
Store it in summer folded with cedar blocks or lavender rather than naphthalene, whose smell outlasts the moth problem it solves. Check the folds in October before the radiators return.
Repair visibly if needed
A blanket mend is not a secret. Darning a worn centre with contrasting wool, in the visible tradition of repair, records the household’s years in the object itself.
Small holes closed early stay small. The blanket’s history is the point of keeping it, and history is written in thread.
Published by the Miraseta journal.