Washing tips for knitwear: How to keep your sweater, scarf & co. beautiful for a long time

Cuddly and soft - that's how we like our knitted sweaters and jackets, hats and scarves in the colder months. Gentle care is important to keep them looking good for longer. Similar to human hair, each individual wool fiber is surrounded by a special cuticle layer - and when this gets wet, it reacts very sensitively to mechanical stimuli.

Lächelnde Frau in Strickpullover, Schal und Mütze© iStock
With our tips, your favorite knitwear will stay beautiful and cuddly soft for a long time.

Washing correctly in the machine

To prevent the cuticle layer from roughening and individual fibers from snagging or matting, only ever put genuine wool clothing in the machine on the wool cycle and with a special care product.

Gentle cleaning by hand

Pour warm water with special detergent into a bowl and soak clothes. Do not rub or rub. Then rinse under lukewarm running water and squeeze out very carefully.

Dry carefully and iron

Pull wet items into shape and dry lying flat on a large towel spread out on a clothes horse for better ventilation. For ironing (max. 130 degrees) place cotton cloth over clothing.

Remove unwanted pilling

The small pills form from loose fibers, especially in places where friction occurs. Use a special wool shaver or ladies' shaver to remove them. Alternatively, use nail scissors.

Special care for cashmere & co.

Soak cashmere and mohair at max. 30 degrees and wash by hand. Alpaca is relatively insensitive and can even be machine washed at 30 degrees. Purely woven wool (loden or felt) must always be dry cleaned.

SOS trick: Soak shrunken sweaters in cold water with hair conditioner for 6 hours. Then rinse well and pull into shape.