When I have spent hours working on knitting a sweater, I want to make sure it looks as good after a dozen washes as it did the day I was knitting it. Here's how I care for the things I have been knitting. I always use luke warm water. I actually don't use detergent. I use my shampoo. I read somewhere that if it's mild enough but effective enough for my hair it must be good enough for my knitting. I add about a teaspoon. I swoosh the sweater around in the soapy water for a while then let it soak for at least fifteen minutes.

I drain the water, squashing the sweater into the bowl to get rid of the water. I rinse with luke warm water as many times as it takes until the water is clear. I press the knitting against the sides of the bowl. I don't wring it tight as I don't want to lose the shape. I then lay the knitting on a flat clean towel. I roll the towel up with the knitting inside and press a little. I find this gets rid of a lot of the water. If you have a mesh sweater dryer then lay it out carefully shaping the sweater to its original proportions. If you don't have one the you can just place the knitting on a fresh towel. This takes longer to dry and I suggest changing to a dry towel and flipping the sweater over so it dries quicker.

Obviously I never hang a sweater, not even on padded hangers as I find it stretches the shoulders with the weight of the wet sweater. I hope you could follow my guide to caring for your knitted items. I learned a lot from a great book I discovered a while back. It was fun and helped me learn more about knitting with advice on free knitting patterns, knitting instructions, all the knitting essentials. You can find it on my blog called Knitting Essentials. Good luck with caring for your knitting.

The Knitting Nova loves to knit and to teach people how to knit. She also loves to blog. She has been knitting for 30 years and has taught many young family members how knitting is fun and easy. You can find more information on her blog at http://knitting-essentials.blogspot.com.