How to Take Care of Your Knitwear: Storage, Washing, and Everyday Maintenance
- anouskaiap
- Sep 25
- 6 min read
Investing time and love into creating handknits, or buying beautiful ready-made sweaters, means you’ll want them to last for years. But knitwear is delicate: prone to stretching, pilling, and even moth damage if not cared for properly. That is exactly why it's so useful to learn how to take care of knitwear in every way, from storing to repairing it!
In this guide, I’ll show you how to best take care of knitwear so it stays soft, stylish, and wearable season after season. You’ll learn:
Storing knitwear properly without stretching or moth damage
How to wash knitwear safely, by hand or machine
How to fix pilling on sweaters and prevent fuzz
How to maintain and repair knitwear, from patching holes to reinforcing seams
As a knitter, I absolutely love working with natural fibres like wool, alpaca, and cotton, and I know first-hand how the right care makes all the difference to the lifespan of your garment. Even though people think that synthetic fibres are more forgiving, taking care of them with the same level of care and attention means you'll be able to hold onto those knits for a long time too!
How to Take Care of Knitwear: Storing Knitwear Properly!
For knitwear to last longer it needs to be stored properly, there's no doubt about it.
One of the most common mistakes is hanging sweaters on hangers. Knitwear stretches under its own weight, especially natural fibres like wool or alpaca, leading to droopy shoulders and misshapen garments.
Best practices for storing knitwear:
Always fold sweaters and store flat in drawers or on shelves.
For seasonal storage, use breathable cotton bags or boxes and avoid sealed plastic, which traps moisture and can cause mildew if stored for a long time.
Protect from moths with cedar blocks, lavender sachets, or airtight containers. A personal favourite of mine? Perfume cedar blocks with a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil for fresh-smelling clothes all year round.
If you absolutely have to hang knitwear, I recommend hanging by folding the garment in half and then placing the sleeves over one side and the body over the other, so the underarms 'wrap around' the hanger's hook (see picture left). This will cause the least distortion in shape. I have personally found this works best with felted hangers that stop the knitted fabric slipping and sliding around.
How to keep the moths out? According to the Woolmark Company, moth larvae are particularly drawn to unwashed wool with traces of skin oils, so make sure you wash before long-term storage.
How to Wash Knitwear
Different fibres need different care, but these are the golden rules for washing knitwear safely:
Hand Washing Knitwear
Fill a basin with lukewarm water and a small amount of wool wash (like Eucalan or Woolite).
Submerge your knit and gently press it under water. Never rub or wring because you risk causing the fibres to felt.
Leave for 10 to 15 minutes.
Rinse gently under fresh lukewarm water.
Squeeze it out gently. I have found that the best way to do this is to place the garment on a surface next to your sink and squeeze it out gently, working from the bottom upwards and then back down again. Again, be sure not to rub or wring it out... squeeze with plenty of patience!
Drying knitwear
Lay flat on a clean towel and roll it up to remove excess water. A gentle press of the rolled towel will get out most of the remaining water.
Lay flat on a drying rack (preferably on a fresh, dry towel), reshape the knitted piece to its intended shape/dimensions, and place the drying rack away from direct heat or sunlight.
A little parenthesis here: If you're drying a cotton knit that has stretched out with wear, as they tend to do, drying it in the warm summer sun might help those fibres tighten back up to its original size. This is my go-to hack when drying my knitted cotton tops, like The Olive Top, throughout the warm summers here in Italy!
Machine Washing Knitwear
If your yarn is labeled "superwash wool" or machine-washable cotton:
Place the garment in a mesh laundry bag.
Use a cold or wool setting on a hand-wash cycle (30 degrees maximum!) and turn the spin all the way down to the lowest setting, e.g. I use spin 400 on my washing machine.
Skip the tumble dryer, and follow the steps described above to dry it out.
How to Fix Pilling
Pilling happens when fibres rub together, forming small fuzzy balls on the surface. It’s especially common under the arms, at the cuffs, and along the sides/edges.
How to remove pilling:
Use an electronic lint remover (a small investment, well worth it!) or a cashmere comb and give your knits a quick pass once every three or four months to prevent pilling build up. I swear that once I have a few pills on the fabric it accelerates how quickly others show up!
Don't pull pills off by hand, it weakens the fibres over time because you usually rip out a bit of the stretch of yarn too.
How to prevent pilling:
Wash less often and spot clean instead.
Rotate out the sweaters that you wear to reduce friction.
It's important to note that pilling isn’t always a sign of poor or low quality fibres, it’s just a natural fibre characteristic. Generally speaking, more expensive wools should pill less because of the way and frequency with which the wool is shorn, processed and spun, but that's not a rule of thumb either...
How To Maintain and Fix Knitwear
Even with the best care, knitwear sometimes needs small fixes. Luckily, knits are often forgiving and easy to repair.
Patching holes in knitwear:
Duplicate stitch: Use this stitch to embroider across weak or thinning stitches with matching yarn to reinforce them invisibly. Be sure you wore across a larger patch than only where your weak stitch is, that way the hole you are embroidering over won't grow.
Darning: Create a small patch of woven fabric using a tapestry needle and yarn or thread to strengthen the knit where it has come undone or worn away.
As explained in this article by Contstance Eyre (@savingthreads_) visible mending is a new trend that is empowering people to fix and not throw away their clothing with a wide range of fun and unique techniques that make an item distinctly yours!
Reinforcing seams:
If seams loosen over time, stitch over them with matching yarn to reinforce them.
At worst, you could also stitch along the inside of the seam with a sewing machine to reinforce it.
Refreshing older pieces:
It's always best to start with a gentle wash and block to get garments back into shape.
Have stretched out neck, cuffs or hems? If you've knitted it yourself you could always frog and re-knit stretched-out cuffs or hems with leftover yarn.
Or, get your hands on some elastic thread, and you can work it through the knit with a duplicate stitch to tighten up necklines, cuffs or shaping and get some more wear out of it.
For inspiration and other ways to extend the life of your clothing, not just your knits, check out these books (not paid ad or affiliate links):
Taking care of knitwear is about more than just avoiding damage, it’s also about the time, skill, and work that went into each piece and the materials its made with. By folding your sweaters flat or hanging carefully, washing gently, tackling pilling regularly, and repairing rather than throwing it away to landfill, you’ll extend the life of your knits and enjoy them for years to come (plus quietly be fighting overconsumption, what's not to love)!
Where to Go Next
If you’re building your knitwear care toolkit, try these next guides:
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