Let's freshen up our sweaters!

How to make better-wearing sweaters and get rid of pills

This is my Targhee Worsted yarn. Notice the firm twist. I love this yarn for sweaters and especially sweaters with a texture pattern.

It's the cusp of spring here in San Francisco: mornings are still cool, but the days are warm and sunny, and all the plants in my backyard are pushing new leaves and sprouts. As a knitter, I'm noticing that my wooly sweaters, which have been worn all winter, are getting a little pilly.

Over the years, I've learned a lot about pilling and yarn choices and how to make sweaters that still look couture-level handmade, even after a whole season of wear.

There are two things I want to share with you today: how to choose a better sweater yarn and how to get rid of pills.

How to choose a better sweater yarn

The uncomfortable truth: Not every yarn will make a great sweater, even if you use the recommended yarn in the pattern. A designer chooses to work with a particular yarn for many reasons, and the fabric's longevity isn't always the top motivation. (No shade intended for designers. There can be so many reasons to design with a particular yarn. But if you, like me, want a sweater that looks fresh after many wearings, it's a great time to get comfortable choosing the best possible sweater yarn, no matter what the designer has used.)

Here's what to know: Pills happen because tiny bits of the wool fiber pop out of the twisted yarn strand. They rub together and create a little ball of wool—a pill. Pills can be small (like a tiny blob you can pick off) or so numerous that your sweater looks a million years old.

Five things will influence how many pills are going to happen with any particular yarn:

1. Staple length. This is a fancy way of saying, "How long are the wool strands that make up the yarn?" The longer the strand, the more likely it is to stay tucked into the twisted yarn and not make a pill.
   
   Here's a short list of breed-specific wools I've encountered in yarn stores, from longest to shortest staple length. The closer your yarn is to the bottom of this list, the more likely it is to pill.
   
   Icelandic Lopi
   Shetland
   Blue-faced Leicester (BFL)
   Targhee
   Kid Mohair

   Merino

   Rambouillet

   Cashmere

   Yak

2. Twist. Tighter twists help keep those fibers tucked in. More loosely twisted yarn is going to mean more pilling.

3. Friction. Places on your body where the sweater rubs against other places on your body (or against an item you might carry, like a bag) are going to pill. That's why pills happen first on high-rub areas like under your arms.

4. Gauge. The looser the pattern gauge relative to the yarn weight, the more likely your sweater is to pill. A fingering sweater knit at 24 sts to 4 inches (10 cm) will pill a lot more than a sock knit at 32 sts to 4 inches (10 cm). Why? There's more room for each strand of yarn to rub against one another.

5. Stitch pattern. Stockinette will pill more than textured stitches that combine knits and purls. This is because the knits and purls tend to fit together and make a denser fabric — again, there's less room for the strands of yarn to rub against one another.

I've learned to consider all of this when I choose a yarn for a sweater. For example, if I want to use a soft wool with a short staple-length fiber (like a Merino-Rambouillet blend), I'll give it the best chance of wearing well by choosing a yarn with a tight twist. I may also choose a pattern that's not all stockinette stitch but is textured instead.

Pills are inevitable in any woolen garment, but they don't have to be so numerous and so frequent that your sweater looks old and worn when it's not. My most important strategy is to choose a yarn that will give me the best chance of pills developing as infrequently as possible.

But what about the pills that will inevitably happen?

I remove them.

How to get rid of pills

Once your sweater has pilled, there's no way to tuck those little balls (aka pills) back into the yarn; they've already popped out and have already compromised the structural integrity of the fabric. So, I remove them.

Many of the things that make handknit sweaters pill also hold true for commercial machine-knit sweaters. Designs that require less skill and time to construct, fabric that is less plush, yarn that is soft to the touch but will wear poorly in thinner fabrics — all these things can make a sweater cheaper to manufacture and tempt us to buy it. And that sweater will quickly look pilled and worn.

There are two ways to remove pills: you can brush them out or you can shave (or cut) them off.

Many knitters love the Gleener, an easy-to-hold tool with a rough "bar" like a pumice stone. You apply a bit of downward pressure and swipe the tool down the sweater fabric, and it both brushes the loose fibers in the same direction and gently pulls off pills and extra fuzz.

This is not my favorite method of removing pills, however. I find that the brushing action doesn't give me a long-enough lasting result. I've "gleened" many a sweater, only to see myself in the mirror a few hours later with plenty of pills having reappeared. I've often wondered if the brushing action makes a soft halo which then makes pills likely to (re)form?

I get better results with a sweater shaver.

Yes, I shave my sweaters, just not with a razor. I use this. I've found that smoothly cutting away the pills helps me balance looking fresh and giving my woolen fabric the longest possible life. I'd rather use my sweater shaver once a month than use a gleener every time I wear a sweater.

As you might guess, as a yarn dyer, I'm really invested in finding yarns that meet my standards of wear. I put all of this into the yarn bases I choose to dye and the patterns I recommend to you.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be listing your Swap Shop items and getting the shop ready for claiming. Some really beautiful things have already come through, including shawl samples from my friend and designer colleague, Tyne Swedish (links to Ravelry). (Thank you, Tyne!)

Tell me:

The shop will open soon, and it’s not too late to identify a few items from your handmades that you would like to rehome. Maybe they don’t fit your body or your style anymore and you’d love for them to go to someone who will deeply appreciate your work and will give it a good home? Go here to learn more.