Winter Knitwear Care: Washing, Drying and Storing Your Jumpers

Key takeaways:

• The label governs everything: where a product publishes its care instruction, follow it exactly — the Fair Isle Quarter-Zip (£59.00) states gentle wash at 30°C, reshape and dry flat.
• Dry flat, never hung wet: a wet knit hung up stretches under its own weight; laid flat and reshaped, it keeps the measurements it was bought at.
• Fold to store: knitwear keeps its shape folded in a drawer or on a shelf, not on a hanger.
• Wash less, air more: most knitwear needs airing between wears far more often than it needs washing.

WARDLEY London is our own store — prices and product facts below are taken from our own listings.

What is the one rule that governs knitwear care?

The care label on the garment. It is the maker's instruction for that specific cloth, and it outranks every general guide — including this one. Where our product pages publish the instruction, we repeat it word for word and add nothing to it. Where a page publishes no instruction, the label inside the garment is the authority: our Scarf & Gloves Gift Set (£18.00) states it plainly on its record — follow the care instructions on the inside label. The routine below is how to carry out the common instructions well, not a substitute for them.

How should I wash a winter jumper?

Follow the label's cycle and temperature, and treat the garment gently in between. The worked example from our own range: the Highbury Fair Isle quarter-zip — 95% cotton, 5% elastane — states gentle wash at 30°C, reshape and dry flat. In practice that means the gentle cycle, the stated temperature and no hotter, the jumper turned inside out so the patterned face is protected in the drum, and no wringing afterwards — press the water out rather than twisting it. Our full care guide page carries the same instruction.

How should knitwear be dried?

Flat, and reshaped while damp. Lay the jumper on a clean towel or a flat drying rack, ease it back to its shape — the published garment measurements are the shape it should return to — and let it dry away from direct heat. A wet knit on a hanger stretches at the shoulders under its own weight, and the stretch does not wash back out. This is the single step that decides whether a jumper keeps its fit through the winter.

How should knitwear be stored?

Folded. Jumpers and cardigans live folded in a drawer or on a shelf, where their weight is supported evenly; hangers are for coats and jackets, whose construction is built for them. Store knitwear clean — marks set over a season — and let a worn piece air before it goes back in the drawer. The Shawl Collar Knit Cardigan (£66.00), an open-front cotton-blend layer, keeps its drape best folded with the collar laid flat.

How often should knitwear be washed?

When it needs it, not by rota. Knitwear worn over a shirt or a tee picks up very little in a day's wear; airing it — laid out or hung in moving air overnight — freshens it between wears, and each wash avoided is shape and colour kept. Wash when there is a mark, an odour that airing does not clear, or after heavy wear. When you do wash, the label's instruction is the whole method: gentle, at the stated temperature, then reshaped and dried flat.

Frequently asked questions

Can I tumble-dry a jumper?

Only if its label says so. The knitwear in our range that publishes an instruction says dry flat — follow that, and treat any garment whose label is silent the same cautious way until you have read it.

What temperature should I wash knitwear at?

The temperature on the label. For the Highbury Fair Isle quarter-zip it is 30°C on a gentle wash — stated on the product record and repeated here exactly.

Why has my jumper stretched?

Almost always drying or storage: a knit hung up wet, or kept on a hanger, stretches under its own weight. Reshaping it damp and drying it flat after the next wash recovers most of it.

Does the same routine apply to scarves and gloves?

The label rule does. Check the inside label of the piece itself — that instruction, not a general guide, is the one written for its cloth.

More in the same spirit: how to choose a Fair Isle jumper, and the full men's knitwear range the routine looks after.