9 ways to preserve and repair your sweaters

What could be more comforting on a cold morning than pulling on a warm, toasty sweater? Sweaters need a little TLC to help them last longer.

• There are several ways to remove pills and lint from a sweater.
• Lightly rub a pumice stone over the sweater to pull them off, or use a small pair of scissors or a razor to snip them off.
• Try wrapping your hand with masking tape or transparent tape with the sticky side out; then blot the sweater with your hand.

• Stick a needle into the base of the snag.
• Then thread the needle with the unwanted snag. Pull the needle through the clothing, and the snag is gone.
• If your sweater is made of wool or cotton yarn, take a crochet hook, poke through the sweater, grab the loose yarn with the hook end, and weave it back into the body of the sweater or through to the inside.

• Has your cotton sweater lost its form in the wash? Bring back its original shape. Lay the sweater out on a towel or drying rack.
• Pull it back into shape, and let it dry in a well-ventilated area, away from sunlight.
• A cotton sweater will dry quickly if air circulates around it.
• If you need to dry the sweater a bit faster, you can place it, inside out, in the dryer.
• Run the dryer on the air-fluff setting for just 15 minutes, and then block the sweater as usual.
• Never hang a cotton sweater to dry on a hanger, because the weight from the water in the piece will stretch it out as it dries.

• When purchasing a sweater, check the label to see if there is a note about shrinkage. If so, buy one size larger.
• Many knitted sweaters will shrink because yarns are stretched out in the knitting process.

• Elbows of sweaters can be restored several ways.
• Patch them with an oval of leather or suede to prevent further unravelling. Or reinforce the elbow by finding yarn the same colour as the sweater.
• Turn the sweater inside out and weave lengths of yarn through the sweater's stitching.

• Wristbands of sweaters sometimes get stretched out.
• To avoid this problem, weave a long length of narrow elastic through the yarn strands of the wristbands on the undersides of the cuffs.
• You can also get the cuffs wet in hot water, and then dry them with a hair dryer to get them to shrink up.

• Sweaters will lose their shape if stored on hangers. Instead, fold them and place them in a drawer.
• If your only choice is to hang a sweater, fold it in half and hang it on a hanger that has cardboard over the crossbar. (Or make your own by splitting a paper towel tube lengthwise and placing it on the hanger.)

• Avoid ironing your double-knit sweaters — the heat will make the fabric shiny.
• If you must iron a double-knit sweater, cover it with a cloth first to protect it from direct heat.

• There's a time-tested way to return it to its proper size: boil it.
• Put it in a large pot with one part vinegar and two parts water.
• Boil for 25 minutes.
• Then take it out of the pot, remove excess water, reshape the sweater, and lay it flat to dry.
• Don't move it until it is completely dry.