When knitwear pills, you have three choices. You can wear the pilled knitwear with little concern for how it affects the visual integrity of the garment. You can pass on items as soon as they show pilling. Or you can try to remove it.
There are tools you can use to remove the pilling, or at least reduce the amount of pilling so that it’s not as noticeable. Brushes, shavers, combs, pumice stones, fuzz removers, and even a dead simple razor blade. Clients, friends and our forum members have had mixed results using these tools. Success rates range from okay to great depending on how much time and effort you’re prepared to spend. You need time, patience, a gentle hand, and good light.
I’ve passed on items that have pilled badly, and kept wearing slightly pilled knits. I used to send our knitwear to dry-cleaners who removed pilling with a brush and comb, and it was fabulous. Unfortunately, I haven’t used their services since we moved. Our new cleaners are very conveniently in walking distance from our home, but they don’t remove pilling from knitwear. So I’ve bought a bunch of tools and am going to give it a go at home. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
What is your knitwear de-pilling strategy?
