How wool sweaters are made
Knitted fabric can stretch up to 500 percent, and a sweater is shaped by the knitting itself.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 22
- raw sources
- 9
- steps from the ground
- 8
The short version
A wool sweater is knitted from yarn in flat shaped panels. Machines loop the yarn into a back, front and sleeves, adding or dropping stitches to follow the shape. The pieces are linked together, washed to soften the wool, pressed to size and finished with labels.
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Dye the yarn
Cones of wool yarn are dyed in the colors the design calls for, because the pattern in a sweater is knit in from colored yarn, not printed on.
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Knit the panels
Machines loop the yarn into rows and rows of connected stitches. Knitted fabric is stretchy and soft, and shaping can be built into the fabric by adding or dropping stitches.
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Link the pieces
Front, back and sleeves are joined at the shoulders and sides, and the neck is closed with a finished edge.
Goes in -
Wash and relax the wool
The assembled sweater is washed in warm water, which cleans the wool and lets the loops settle. Finishing treatments can reduce felting and make it safe to put in a machine.
Goes in -
Press to size
The sweater is dried and pressed or steamed flat to the size on the label.
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Tag and fold
Labels go on, and the sweaters are folded and bagged for shipping.
Worth repeating
- The Oxford English Dictionary dates the word sweater to 1882, when it meant a woolen vest worn in rowing to sweat off weight.
- William Lee of Nottinghamshire invented the first stocking frame, an early knitting machine, in 1589.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and wool sweater starts as these 9 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How wool sweaters are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/sweater