How to Care For Your Knitwear - IrelandsEye

3 Steps To Care For Your Knitwear

At IrelandsEye, we know that if you look after your knitwear, it will look after you. By following our guidelines to care for your pieces, your knitwear will last you a really long time.

Our customers are still wearing their IrelandsEye knitwear pieces ten, fifteen and twenty years later. Some customers love their knitwear so much, they ask for yarn to repair a small hole which has resulted from endless wear! So give it the love and care it deserves, and it will love you back.

Caring for your knitwear pieces properly allows them keep their shape and they will take you everywhere, from the beach on a blustery day to a busy city street in winter. Follow our guidelines for washing, drying, and storing your knitwear and wool sweaters to maintain their softness, shape and great quality!

Step 1: Handwashing your knitwear

When washing your knitwear and wool sweaters, it's important to handwash them. Never machine wash as it can cause shrinkage. Lukewarm water is most suitable for wool as very hot or cold water may compromise the shape and size of your knitwear pieces.

Top Tip: When washing your knitwear pieces, it's important to wash them one at a time to avoid any colour mixing.

Step 2: Rinsing your knitwear

When washing your knitwear, only use a small amount of detergent, as too much can be difficult to rinse from your knitwear and wool sweaters, which may leave them feeling coarse.

Top Tip: You should never wring or scrub your wool knitwear as this can cause pilling and stretching.

Step 3: Drying your knitwear

The most important guideline to follow when it comes to drying your knitwear and wool sweaters is to never put it in a tumble dryer as this will cause it to shrink. To remove excess water from your knitwear, roll your garment in a towel and gently squeeze all of the water out. Dry your knitwear by laying it flat across a clothes rail.

Top Tip: It's important not to hang your knitwear and wool sweaters to dry as this will cause stretching. If your knitwear needs to be reshaped, do this while it is still damp.

Storing your knitwear

The best way to store your knitwear and wool sweaters is to fold them. When storing sweaters it is best not to hang them as it will cause the shoulders of a sweater to stretch and the weight will stretch the body length. If you are storing your knitwear for the summer, we recommend putting them in breathable bags to avoid any mildew.

Top Tip: If you are storing your knitwear away for the summer, put a sachet of lavender in with them, this will keep any little bugs away!

How to Handwash Your Knitwear

Find out more about how you can maintain the softness and quality of your knitwear pieces in our video tutorial below. We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.