You love it.
He keeps you company every week right now. He experiences your every movement throughout the day, shares your moments at all hours, pressed against you. It's almost part of you.
Sometimes you even cuddle him, because he is gentle. Because it keeps you warm. Maybe also because you had to sell your goldfish to afford it.
It's your favorite knitted sweater.
It is also in the middle of the winter season, between several intensive ports, that one morning you put it on in front of your mirror, serenely to start your day.
But there, something is wrong.
You feel it: your sweater is different, something has changed on its surface, but you don't yet know what.
You move closer to the mirror, look more closely at your winter companion and there you see them: the pills.
These intrusive little lint toys that sneak into the life of your sweaters without warning to disrupt their beautiful regularity.
However, they were not mentioned on the label.
© He looked so innocent when you were at the checkout...
Don't panic, that's where our new format comes in: Christophe, our editor-in-chief, challenged me to explore the vagaries of clothing in a series of short articles.
To do this, I must confront my worst enemy: the spirit of synthesis. I bet him a kilo of scallops that I could do it. It's up to you to judge whether I should go and queue at the fishmonger.
To return to our mini wool sheep walking around
Why is your sweater pilling? Is it therefore of poor quality? What is the magic solution to fix this?
The answer below, without Jamy's help.
WHAT'S HAPPENING ?
Let's start by reassuring ourselves: pilling is normal.
Unless you have an uninteresting poly-petroleum fiber sweater, your knit will inevitably go through this stage. It simply rejects matter, because it lives.
It's like leaves falling from a tree, like your hair growing, like Chuck Norris winning in the end: you won't stop it.
Within this mesh, there are fibers shorter than others. It is the latter who, over the course friction, end up coming out and intertwining happily to settle on the surface of the fabric.
And, as these little threads remain partly intertwined with the other fibers remaining in the sweater, they are therefore attached to the weft of your garment. Otherwise, it wouldn't be funny.
© Here, we can distinguish the short fibers which seem to want to go out for a walk.
As it is often friction that will make them come out, lint will mainly appear in places that are prone to it: under the armpits of a sweater, at the elbows, between the thighs of flannel pants. .
At the end of this evacuation phenomenon, it is the longer fibers of wool, cashmere, or other materials which will remain to constitute the weave of your sweater. It is these fibers that will be responsible for helping you fight the cold in the long term.
Moreover, among the stages of making a wool fabric, we find carding and combing which aim, among other things, to align the fibers, but also to remove impurities... and the remaining short fibers!
The combing step being dispensable 3, wools which have not undergone it will therefore have a tendency to pill more significantly since there will be more short fibers remaining.
Beyond the length of the fibers, another determining element will be decisive for the tendency of a knit to pill: the thickness of the threads.
Thinner threads will be softer but may break more easily if abrasioned.
And if they break, what will become of them? Come on, I know you're following.
Shorter fibers!
This is why a softer knit can also tend to pill more easily.
But does that necessarily mean that it is poorly made?
IS MY SWEATER OF POOR QUALITY?
You read it above: it is normal for your sweater to pill. But what type of sweater will pill the most?
How long will you see these balls of wool wandering around on your favorite winter piece?
If a softer knit like cashmere, a knit with
Moreover, regarding the relationship between pilling and tightening of knitting, it was Alexandre, founder of the Paris Yorker brand, who took the time to share with me his experience as a manufacturer. In fact, tightening the knitting as much as possible can be a solution to limit pilling. We can also limit the treatments (which provide swelling and softness). The result is a knit that is less prone to pilling, but also less soft: in the case of cashmere, Alexandre even saw people questioning the authenticity of the material because it was rougher.
For a brand, it can therefore be difficult to find the right compromise between softness and resistance to pilling. Since we will find a disadvantage on each side of the force. This compromise can also be stylistic: to obtain a precise knit style, you sometimes have to resort to looser knitting and accept your little balls of hair. This is where we find the nuance between "quality" and "solidity": an exceptionally beautiful knitted knit will often have its consequences in terms of linting, maintenance and fragility.
© Each sweater has its own way of fluffing.
To make a basic quality knit, a brand will pay very little attention to the origin of the wool. These will therefore often be animals that are shorn frequently, mixtures of fibers with a high proportion of short and fragile threads.
You will have understood: if your sweater is of poor quality, it will tend to pill more.
This is where the magic ingredients of disposable mesh manufacturers come in: chemical treatments and agents, which often in addition to giving a semblance of softness and loft, will prevent pills from coming out at the first ports.
On this point, I would like to thank the Ateliers Laines d'Europe association which allowed me to have the contribution of Daniel Palet, a retired textile engineer and professor. Mr. Palet was able to tell us the exact nature of the treatments frequently used in the textile industry: resins and silicones, which "envelop" the fibers to limit shrinkage, and therefore also the first pilling by influencing the friction properties. Currently, to limit environmental damage, enzymatic treatments are used. Fabric softeners can also reduce pilling of knitwear.
But as with a haircut maintained with styling gel, the effect does not last indefinitely.
And once the little fluffy creatures are out, they won't come back in.
They will even continue to come out until there are not enough long threads remaining to ensure the strength of the weft.
In short, it will often end up with a hole in a chafing area.
Conversely, if your beloved sweater is of good quality, it was made from regular wool with continuous threads. Because in this case the latter often comes from the first shearing of the animal, as part of breeding which has paid attention to most of the manufacturing stages to preserve this advantage.
Who says continuous and regular threads, says predominantly long threads.
Who says mostly long threads, says fewer short threads.
Fewer short threads mean less pilling.
Who says less pilling... says less pilling.
And as in this case it was probably not treated with strong fixation gel 3000 before sale, these lint will naturally appear during the first wears.
They will gradually disappear afterwards, leaving behind a beautiful wool weave which will always have enough long threads to keep you warm.
© After the storm, your knitwear will once again become a beautiful calm ocean of long fibers.
AGAINST PILLING, WHAT DO I DO?
Don't panic, don't throw it away, don't burn it: your sweater deserves a second chance.
There are solutions to pilling. Besides, this is not really a problem in itself.
It is said that in around ten washes, a quality sweater will lose its last clusters of pilling as it spins inside the drum of your washing machine.
In addition, be aware that when washing, the fibers will tend to harden. The shorter ones will therefore generally intertwine less.
However, this is not an excuse to spend a Sunday in your underwear in front of your washing machine, repeating washing sessions over and over again. The lifespan of your garment, as well as your water bill, will thank you.
© You can even make meatballs and offer them to your loved ones.
However, there are some possible best practices.
On the vast expanses of the Internet, you will find solutions that will tell you to spend your time endlessly tearing out all the lint one by one with pliers, until you die.
I would not limit myself to this solution in your place. You could, with the same time, use another method and read a good book.
In addition, by tearing out each pill in this way, you will only indirectly pull on other short threads of the weave of your knit.
You will also sometimes be told to roll over it with an adhesive brush. The latter being, neither more nor less, a roll of sticky paper. Not very effective: your sweater is not pizza dough, I would tell you to move on.
I've even heard of recommendations to put your sweater in the freezer along with your Mr. Freezes. Instead, let's look at simple solutions that have always been proven to work.
© Even if it comes from the fast fashion industry, your sweater didn't deserve that.
YOU CAN PREVENT
Generally, for most sweaters, you can limit the arrival of pilling in advance:
- Limit friction when washing, by avoiding overloading your machine or washing your knitwear with your jeans.
- Consider turning the sweater inside out. Simple but effective. Better yet, slip it into a bag or net.
- Many chemical washing products weaken the threads, which can break and form new pills. Limit its use.
If necessary, our clothing care bible is there to guide you.
Concerning the lint that can appear between the thighs of wool pants, know that it is often difficult to remedy it effectively if you have strong thighs. Friction, and therefore pilling, will be common no matter what.
SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO HEAL
If lint infestation is starting to become a problem or is visually disturbing to you, lint shavers are your friend.
For around fifteen euros, their blades will be at your side to cut pills efficiently, while the presence of a grid on top will prevent these blades from touching the weft. Goodbye to the risk of holes.
© Collection tray, adjustable cutting height, the Rolls Royce of the pill shaver.
If you know how to use a lightsaber or are a professional surgeon, you can take a regular beard razor to trim the hair on your own. In this case, it is better to use a razor with worn blades. Touch your sweater, being careful not to damage it.
© As for pilling combs, they work pretty well too.
TO FINALLY: BREATHE, THE LIFE OF YOUR STYLE IS NOT OVER
The most important anti-pilling solution: put things into perspective.
Some people systematically get upset when the first fluff appears, bitterly regretting the perfect regularity that their sweater had when they bought it.
But beauty is sometimes found in irregularity: you have proof that your garment is alive and that it is not plastic.
In the same way that all your clothes will never fall exactly on you to the nearest centimeter, the materials will never be perfectly regular. And that's what we like.
Of course, if your knitwear has more pilling than fabric and it doesn't come off for months, you have the right to ask yourself questions about the
