How to Take Care of a Handmade Sweater

Are you a first-time owner of a handmade sweater and nervous about how to care for your new wool baby? Or perhaps you’ve always wondered how best to care for that wool sweater you already own, and you’re not sure where to start.

Look no further! In this article we’ll share tips on how to take care of your handmade sweater, cardigan or vest. But first, we’ll go over the reasons why natural fibers like wool deserve a little bit of extra care.

What is Different About Caring for Wool?

Our clothing is made from 100% natural, 100% renewable and totally biodegradable wool. Because wool is a natural fiber, it does not need washed that often. You’ll find that you’ll be able to get quite a few wears in before needing to fully wash the garment.

When your sweater needs a quick pick-me-up refresh, use a clothing steamer! The nice thing about non-synthetic fibers is that they won’t melt with a steaming, so you can confidently go over your garment with hot steam to freshen it up.

Steaming your sweater also gives you a chance to reshape it when it starts getting stretched out. (More on that later.) Synthetic fibers, like acrylic, will melt or singe if you steam them, so be careful to check what your garment is made of! If you’re working with one of our wool sweaters, steaming is A-OK!

Wool is eco-friendly and a naturally sweat-repellent fabric!

When it comes time to wash your wool sweater, the difference is that you cannot wash it in the washing machine or have it dry cleaned. You must hand wash the sweater. No, really.

We used to be those people who read “hand wash only” tags and went, “Psssshhhh, they are just trying to control me…” If you’ve done the same, you know the pure heartbreak that comes with taking a sweater out of a washing machine only to see that it is 5 sizes smaller and completely felted. D’oh.

Conversely, wool is also known to stretch out quite a bit. Because of that it is not recommended you hang your wool garments on hangers. This will cause the sweater or vest to stretch out and look pretty wonky. The best way to store your wool is to fold it neatly and put it on a shelf or in a drawer.

Another characteristic of natural wool is that, much like your cat, it will shed. A lot. Have you ever bought a wool rug and noticed that for the first few months of vacuuming, the entire vacuum is full of wool fibers? But that, after a while, the shedding decreases as the rug becomes a bit more “lived in”? It’s the same with your sweater—except please don’t vacuum it.

Shedding or pilling is a completely normal situation for wool, and don’t worry, it won’t last forever and you can learn how to manage it.

Now that you know more about what makes caring for wool different than caring for store-bought clothing, we’re going to get into the details.

How to Wash Your Handmade Wool Sweater

If you’re confident the sweater is actually in need of a wash (hint: try the smell test), you need to be sure you hand wash only in cold or lukewarm water.

You can watch the video below if you’re a visual learner:

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A post shared by Megan Kuhar (@happythoughtknits)

Otherwise, follow these steps.

1. Put some water in your bathtub or a bucket, and add a tiny amount of a delicates hand wash detergent. The water shouldn’t be too sudsy, but there should be some bubble action going on.

2. Throw your sweater into the sorta-soapy water and push it down, allowing the air bubbles to pass through so it gets as soaked as possible. Give your knits a gentle squeeze, maybe a swish-swish, and leave in the water for about 15 minutes.

3. Once you’re done soaking it, empty the water and refill with soap-free water. Rinse it carefully. When the sweater is rinsed, take it out of the water. You can gently squeeze it to remove some water, but do not wring it dry. We repeat, do not wring it dry.

4. When the sweater is not dripping like crazy, place it on a large bath towel, spread out on the floor. You can layer two towels if you’d like. Roll the sweater up in the clean towel(s) to remove excess water. Then stomp on it. Wear slippers or bare feet, not socks, because your feet will get wet and the most annoying thing ever is wet socks.

5. When you’re done squeezing out that water, lay the sweater down on a flat surface to dry. We recommend a yoga mat or exercise foam squares. You can use sweater blocking pins like these to keep your sweater holding its shape. By the way, if you want to stretch the length of your sweater, now’s the time to do it!

An example of wool fibers starting to shed and pill.

What to Do When Your Sweater Starts Shedding

After the first few wears, you will start to notice your garment is pilling or shedding more. This is totally normal and to be expected. The friction caused by wearing an item will move the fibers around and in effect, loosen them up a bit. So you’ll see a lot of pilling in places like the sides under your arms, as well as on the sleeves.

To combat shedding and pilling, we recommend using a manual wool shaver, as opposed to a battery-operated one. The battery shavers tend to not do well with chunkier yarn, but with a manual shaver you can easily go over spots that you need to fix. Plus, it’s easy to pack with you on a trip or keep in your front entryway for a quick refresh when you’re heading out the door.

Follow the instructions on the shaver when you are using it and try it out on an inconspicuous spot first. And yes, in case you were wondering, it is extremely satisfying to do.

How to Store a Wool Sweater

There are a number of enemies of wool, but three especially come to mind: Washing machines, clothing hangers, and moths. That’s why it’s important to know how to store your wool garment when you’re not wearing it.

First of all, if you are hanging a wool garment in your closet, you’re running the risk of stretching it out in two ways: lengthwise (the weight of the garment pulls it down and the fibers pull along with it), and in the shoulders (the hanger pushing into the shoulders will eventually reshape them and cause weird pointy areas).

While not so prominent with our sweater vests because of how lightweight they are, the risk of stretching is especially high with our cardigan coats. You’ll start to see the shoulders get droopier and the length becoming less cropped. To avoid this absolute catastrophe, simply store your garment folded.

Lastly, natural fibers like wool are comfy cozy for us, but beware: they are also comfy cozy for moths, too. If you’re storing your garments in a basement closet, either put them in garment bags or keep moth balls in there too. Moths will chew holes in your sweater and from there, it will begin to unravel. What. A. Tragedy.

Honestly, it doesn’t hurt to use these protective measures wherever you store your wool garments. After all, our goal here at Happy Thought Knits is to make you an article of clothing that lasts for years to come. And we want to see you wear it again and again!