Home Ec: Using Sweater Stones

To round out our mini series on garment care, allow me to present the amazingly low-tech Sweater Stone.  It doesn’t require batteries and it doesn’t have to be cleaned or maintained…at all.  It’s like music to my ears; we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.  Not to mention that it WORKS, really well, actually.  If you hate pilling as much as I do then you may want to pause reading and purchase one of these.  I hear Sweater Stones make great stocking stuffers…

Anyway, Pills, those pesky balls of fiber that form on knitwear, are an inevitable side effect of a well-worn knit but they don’t have to send your sweaters into retirement. Using a sweater stone is a quick and easy way to remove pills from your knitwear so that you can keep favorites in rotation and prolong the life of clothing.

This simple to use, pumice like stone only requires that you gently brush the stone over the problem area and watch as those nasty little pills accumulate.  That’s it.  The stones broken cells sever filaments that hold pills to garments thus restoring the texture of the fabric.  Another great thing about these particular sweater stones is that they have been made in the Seattle area for the last 27 years and employ the functionally disabled in the process.

A Sweater Stone is a great way to breathe new life into tired knits, save money on clothes & dry cleaning, while also supporting a great American company.  For Appalatch sweaters, we recommend the annual use of a sweater stone to maintain the look and feel of the garment.  After all, they are made to last a lifetime but require some TLC to keep up appearances.