Knitwear HELP!

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I ruin every nice jumper I have.

How do I keep them looking lovely?

I bought a couple of gorgeous knits in the Toast sale last year and they're now hard and misshapen. About to buy some more and don't want to do the same thing.

What's the secret to keeping them nice?

I put them in the hand wash cycle in the machine with woolite, but they still come out all bobbly, hard and out of shape.

(If the secret is to actually hand wash at the sink I might have to abandon expensive knitwear cos seriously who has the time? Please don't say this is the secret!)

What temperature and spin speed is your hand wash cycle? I’ve only ever used wool wash cycles for my woollen items (except when I wasn’t concentrating and ruined one of my favourite handknits 😭)

How are you drying them? Laid flat / semi supported on a clothes airer?

Don't wash often- air on the line on a nice day if you can get away with it.

Use a wool wash- cool water, not much agitation, gentle spin.

Cool water, no agitation. It's heat and agitation that causes wool to felt.

If you do hand wash at a sink then you can get a lot of moisture out by laying your garment on a towel, rolling it up and walking over it.

Hand wash cycle on a very low temperature with only a couple of their similar items (I have enough woollens to justify this!), dry on a rack, only wash when absolutely necessary!

Hand wash in hair conditioner.
Roll in a towel to squeeze our water, then air dry.

Also, wash inside out.

Try and wash them as little as possible. (I try to wear close fitting t-shirts if possible underneath so they don't need to be washed every time)
If its just spot dirt then just clean that little bit with soap rather than wash the whole thing.
Gentle wool wash - not too full in the drum but also I find too empty also bad.
Lie flat to dry - either on a towel on bed, but I have a flat bit on the top of my clothes airer that works best but only room for 1 jumper on there at a time and normally I wash 3 or 4 together.
Straighten our before drying - then less need to iron
Certain ones bobble more than others - I have a debobbling comb that I might run over when they start to become too obvious.
But I hate it - so I don't have as many nice jumpers as I would like because they take more time to look after...

Thanks this is helpful.

I follow a lot of this advice - cool hand wash cycle and drying flat. But I hadn't considered whether a full/empty machine might make a difference.

Sounds the comb could help too.

What a palaver though. They're almost more trouble than they're worth!

Is it possible to rescue a felted jumper?
I have a gorgeous Uniqlo one , I wash them in a bag on a wool setting with a detergent for wool (currently a Waitrose clear liquid)

I washed my Woolovers ones for 4 years , no problem.
2 washes and the Uniqlo one feels hard and has shrunk.

I read baby shampoo or liquid wash and soak 15 minutes then towel to dab the moisture . Another tip was half a cup of hair conditioner (though my Woolovers ones said not to use fabric conditioners)
Will it work?