How to properly steam a knitted garment?

Now, more than ever, hand-knitted items are popular. The mistresses of knitting needles and crochet knitting know how to knit the most complex patterns in a way that many factories never dreamed of. Instagram is full of pages of stunning beauty cardigans, hats and scarves. Handmade is extremely widespread and enjoys well-deserved love among many, because every thing knitted by hand is individual, made especially for the customer and, as a rule, is worn with great love.

With proper care, sweaters, hats and cardigans will last for several years without losing their original appearance.

But the usual "shop" knitwear is no less popular, especially with the arrival of autumn, and then winters, which are rarely cold in Russian latitudes. First, turtlenecks, cardigans and fluffy stoles appear in our wardrobe, later - voluminous hats, sweaters with braids or jacquard, warm snood scarves and mittens with woolen socks. These things are worn by both adults and children.

Of course, woolen, cashmere and acrylic knits need to be washed no less than fabrics., because they get dirty when worn equally strongly. However, both washing and ironing must be correct. Many of them can only be washed by hand (especially for hand-knitted items) at temperatures no higher than 30 degrees. It is better to use special compounds for wool for washing; many experienced knitters recommend a 2 in 1 shampoo with conditioner for this. If you decide to use a washing machine, only the delicate mode or the "wool" mode will do. The number of revolutions during spinning should be no more than 600, and better even less.Yes, the thing will dry much longer, but at the same time it will not stretch out, it will not warp, it will remain symmetrical and even.

Any kind of stain on the knitted garment is removed before the main wash. To do this, you need to soak the thing in warm water (about 30 degrees) and apply a stain remover to the surface of the stain, either in liquid form or in the form of soap. Then you can wash the thing either in a typewriter or by hand, as usual.

Dry such things spread out on a vertical surface, you need to squeeze and twist them with great care, if possible, it is better to place them above the bathtub so that excess water drains out, while the product should not sag and stretch. A special clothes dryer that attaches to the bathroom wall works well.

After the product is dry, it needs a wet heat treatment (WTO), and in most cases it cannot be ironed. To give the garment the correct shape and align the loops in its knitting, only a steam iron or a garment steamer is suitable.

The product must be carefully laid out on the surface of the ironing board and covered with clean gauze or cotton cloth slightly moistened with water. After that, the item must be steamed using either the "steam" function on the iron, or the steamer. If the thing has just been tied, then the WTO should be carried out immediately after the end of mating. So the canvas straightens, the loops are made smoother, and the product takes on the shape that was originally conceived.

If for some reason you don't have a “new generation” iron at hand, but you still need to iron a knitted product, any iron will do. However, you will have to act very carefully so as not to burn a hole in the knitted fabric or leave marks.

Likewise, lay out the item on the ironing board and cover it with a clean piece of gauze or cotton cloth. Then use a spray bottle to spray clean water over the entire surface of the fabric. Next, move the iron lever to the maximum temperature, and, holding it very close to the product, but not touching it, drive it over its entire area. This action requires great care and concentration, but the result, if done correctly, will be exactly the same as if you were using a steamer.

When steaming things knitted or crocheted, you should pay attention to the seams, if any. It is necessary to steam them in such a way that no ugly creases are formed at the places where the parts of the product are stitched.

If there are no seams on the item (for example, on sweaters and dresses tied with raglan both from the top and from the bottom), they need to be steamed so that there are no folds on the sides. It is best to gently stretch the product onto an ironing board and steam it sequentially on all sides. If the stitching was carried out with a knitted stitch "loop to loop" (most often you can find it on hand-made things), then their smoothing is done in the same way.

If you use a vertical steamer for steaming your knitwear, you do not need to lay out the products on the ironing board, but after they dry, hang them on the clothes hanger. Steaming can be done directly on them. It must be remembered that by leveling the surface of the clothes in this way, you make them wet, and after this procedure you need to let the things dry out.

If the product is not knitted from natural wool or cotton (most often it is found in industrial production), for example, sweaters or scarves made of acrylic, there are some peculiarities in caring for it. Since this material is one hundred percent synthetic fibers, it gets dirty faster than natural. Wash it in water no hotter than 40 degrees. If you do it by hand, under no circumstances should you wash the stains formed on your clothes.They should be gently rubbed with soap and stain remover and left for the time recommended in the instructions. After this time, you need to carefully rinse the item and squeeze out the excess water as little as possible.

As for steaming acrylic items, they, like bamboo thread, cotton or lurex items, are very easy to ruin. Therefore, the WTO should not be carried out at the maximum temperature of the iron. As for cotton threads, they tend to shrink strongly when steamed, in addition, it is very easy to plant a spot on them with hot steam, so the WTO is carried out quickly and with a non-hot iron.

For information on how to steam a knitted thing, see the next video.