MetaChat - Help me save my sweater!

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13 October 2005

Help me save my sweater! Inside are many specifics about my sweater and its problems.→[More:]

I have a sweater that I love. It's about five years old, and made from a wide, soft yarn. It might be synthetic; it might be wool: the tag has rubbed off, but it isn't super itchy. It was knitted so that in some spots the yard is tight & in others, loose. It was always a little hairy, but now it has pills of doom all over. They are held in place by about eight million springy tendrils apiece. How do I save it?

post by: dame at: 20:43 | 12 comments

Your worries are over.

posted by bmarkey 13 October | 20:51

Yeah, I'm worried something like that is going to screw up the yarn. On a cotton/poly blend, I'd probably just use a regular razor, but I worry about this one. Hence all the extra information.

posted by dame 13 October | 21:06

Oh. Well, I'm stumped then, as the pill shaver is pretty much the extent of my sweater-saving knowledge. Sorry.

posted by bmarkey 13 October | 21:11

Thank you for trying. Sorry if I came off rude; I wasn't sure if you were making fun of me.

posted by dame 13 October | 21:18

Nope, no rudeness percieved.

posted by bmarkey 13 October | 21:20

I have shaved many a sweater in my time, and I'll vouch for the sweater shaver. It'll shave the pills and the tendrils but not the sweater. It's very gratifying to revive a loved sweater. You could also drive yourself insane by taking a crochet hook and pulling them all to the inside of the sweater, but that's only for the truly bored masochistic/obsessive/compulsives amongst us.

posted by puddinghead 13 October | 22:32

You can use a pumice stone to slough off some of the pilling. (They sell "sweater stones," but they're basically just pumice stones.)

posted by jrossi4r 13 October | 22:34

puddin' reminded me, poking them back into the weave or through with some pointy but not sharp implement use to be what was done before the pill shaver came along.

posted by ethylene 13 October | 22:45

Pills of what?

DOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
≡ Click to see image ≡

Sorry, dame, most of my favorite sweaters end up shrunken or burned by innatention or ignorance, so I don't have anything to offer besides DOOM!
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Hugh Janus 14 October | 09:14

I didn't mean that to be depressing, dame, just funny. I hope your sweater is alright. My last sweater was put through the wash by my father. I felt terrible and I hid it from him so he wouldn't feel bad too.

posted by Hugh Janus 14 October | 09:34

My last favorite sweater, that is.

posted by Hugh Janus 14 October | 09:35

Thank you, Hugh. And you, sir, are a good son.

posted by dame 14 October | 11:00

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