Natural Ways to Protect Your Knitwear

For a knitter, there’s no feeling better than the feeling of satisfaction created by making a perfect project – knitwear for you that you’ll just love to wear and touch over and again. 
But it is very essential that you get to treasure your garment for many years. 

Storage : 

Here are a few storage tips:

• First you need to do a little but smart house keeping. Any storage area – be it a cupboard, top of your wardrobe, under the bed or anywhere else – should be dusted,  and wiped to make it completely damp-free and clean. 
 
• Don’t make your garment made from Vardhman yarns, a tasty treat for the critters and moths. Declare war against them. If you’d prefer to use a drawer or a shelf for storing your knitwear, line it with scented anti-moth paper. And if it’s a wardrobe, you can use mothballs. You can also use fragranced sachets or cedar balls to keep the eerie moths at bay. It would be even better to pop one or two fragranced sachets among the knitwear. You must not forget to replace the old ones that have lost their strength. But if moths are already there, you can use moth traps in the rooms; these sticky pheromone traps kill male moths and leave the female ones flying around without letting them to lay eggs. You can also put the garments in a plastic bag if they already have moths and freeze overnight. Now slowly defrost them; this would kill the moths and even the moth larvae. 
 
• If it is cashmere or any special wool for knitting, don’t store it in cardboard boxes as they aren’t pH neutral and thus the chemicals of the garment’s fabric can react with the alkaline or acid of the boxes. The brown boxes should be strictly avoided as they are highly alkaline. It would be better if you use a breathable bag of 10 cm depth; they can store up to 5 garments. Such breathable bags have a top and bottom with a clear plastic wide band that allows you to look into the bag to see what’s inside. Moreover, they are moth proof. 
 
• Avoid using plastic bags to store your garments. Even if you use, don’t keep the garments in those bags for over 3 months owing to the change in temperature. Central heating going off and on may cause condensation inside the bags and that would dry on the garments and cause yellowing on light colors. They can cause mildew too. 
 
• If possible, wrap the garments, especially cashmere with an acid-free tissue paper that preserves the original color of the garments and protects them against dust and damp. 
 
• Any stored garments should be kept in well-ventilated, covered and dust-free environment. They shouldn’t be kept away from direct sunlight as it would make the garments discolored and rot the fabric.