Product Review – Sweater Care Kit

Twice a year all the industry professionals gather for our trades show, TNNA . In addition to education and networking, it’s a chance to see the new products coming out. When I visited Cocoknits booth last winter and I saw the Sweater Care Kit, I knew I had to try it out.

 Product Review – Sweater Care Kit

The kit comes in a handy jute carrying bag and includes:

• Two zippered laundry bags (1 small, one large)
• 1 large towel
• 1 towel grid with inches and centimeters on opposite sides
• Bottle of Eucalan
• 1 mesh pop-up dryer

I’ve always loved my Knitter’s Blocks. I use them for everything  . . . but the one thing they lack for sweater blocking is a measurement grid. I’ll be honest, it never bugged me that much, I just cracked out my tape measure, but I was willing to explore the world of grid blocking. My first experiment was steam blocking on the grid.

I used the grid on top of my Knitter’s Blocks. The grid itself is made of an absorbent towel material. At first I was sad to not have the grippy surface of the Knitter’s Blocks that I’ve come to love, but the towel itself is fairly grippy. *

Next up, time to test out the wet blocking (or washing) toys. I started out by putting some of my non hand knits in the small zippered mesh bag to give it a run. The bag has a nice shape and a very good zipper. Then I took a deep breath and put one of my machine washable hand knit sweaters in the large zipper bag.

Here’s the thing . . . I never wash my hand knits in the washing machine, even if they are super wash yarn, I just don’t trust. But I carefully rolled up my sweater and zipped it in. I loved the shape of the laundry bag. Usually large ditty bags are flat rectangles. This one holds a rolled up sweater snuggly, but still leaves enough room for washing.

I rolled the sweater out on the towel, and it was absorbent enough. The only draw back to it is, it’s fairly stiff, so once I used it I couldn’t hang it on a hook, but really, now I’m just picking nits.

The real star of the show (according to my husband, who does the laundry and fell in love with this item) is the drying rack. Holy Moly do I love this bad boy.

It starts out as this little round thing. Stand back and be warned, when you take off the elastic band around the disc, it pops out to be this fabulous drying rack.

Just clip the straps together and it bows out just enough to let air get to both sides.

I tested it out on a cotton hand knit top, and it dried so much faster then laying it out on a towel

All and all, I loved this set. It’s a perfect companion to the Knitter’s Blocks. I just hope I can pry the drying rack out of my husband’s hands so I can ever use it again!!

Note: I received the set from the company to test. My opinions are my own.

* UPDATE: I’ve received several e-mail questions about what sweater is being blocked. It’s my Diamond Slim pattern. Available for purchase in my Raverly store, and my Craftsy store.

For more information on blocking, you can take my live class at Stitches Midwest, Texas & Annie’s Craft Show. See live teaching HERE
Or take my Blocking Webinar online HERE.