Shrunken! Sweater Rescue 1010

By Gemma Brown

Shrunken! Sweater rescue 101

As the days became colder I pulled out my supersoft wool sweater and wore it for a while. Then I popped it in the wash basket with the intention of freshening it up before wearing it again. Then I fell victim to COVID (again) for a few days. During this time, my lovely husband and teenage daughter looked after me. One evening 15-year-old Elise appeared nervously by my bed. “Um. You know your turquoise sweater, it wasn’t like, your favourite or anything was it?” Yup, she’d shoved my nicest cosiest knit in the tumble drier and shrunk it. “Never mind love,” I said through gritted teeth as I looked at my now diminutive pullover, which was too small even for her, “I’ll put one on my Christmas list.” But I reckoned without the resourcefulness of teenagers. The next day, as I was attempting to get out of bed on wobbly legs for the first time in a week, she reappeared with my sweater, now apparently magically regrown. “How did you do that?” I asked. She looked pleased with herself, “YouTube!” she replied. “There’s a tutorial for most things. I looked up ‘shrunken sweater solutions’ and followed the instructions.” And here are those instructions for anyone else who has ever accidentally ruined their knitwear. Wool items shrink because there are scales on the surface of the wool that react to the combination of heat, moisture and agitation in a washing machine or tumble drier. The scales stick to each other and interlock like Velcro, so you end up with a jumper that’s several sizes too small. Any rescue attempt is aimed at relaxing and separating the fibres. Fill a sink with lukewarm water and 50ml of hair conditioner. Soak the sweater thoroughly, make sure it’s completely wet and leave it for ten minutes. This helps to relax the fibres and release the scales. DON’T wring it. Instead let the water out of the sink and press out the excess water. Then spread a large towel out on a firm surface and lay the sweater out on top of the towel. Place another large towel over the sweater and press out as much water as possible. Elise apparently used a rolling pin for this bit! Then gently (so you don’t break any fibres) stretch the sweater out to pull the now unlocked fibres away from each other and back into the desired shape. Finally, allow it to air dry. This may take a couple of days. Unfortunately, this method doesn’t always work. Elise also shrank my husband’s sweater in the same wash load, and it ‘felted’ quite badly and sadly was beyond rescue. His sweater was a looser knit lambswool while mine was a tight knit cashmere. The looser knit and shorter fibres of his jumper meant the heat and moisture had more of a ‘shrink’ effect because there was more ‘room’ for shrinkage to occur. The fact my sweater is a tighter knit and is probably made from longer fibres meant it was easier to relax them again. So, while not a fool proof solution Elise scored a 50% success rate, learned a valuable life lesson in the process, and has promised her dad a new sweater for Christmas.