Sweaters - why tension is important.

When shopping for a sweater it is natural that you'll focus first on the visual impression, typically it's the design, color or model. The next will be the hand feel followed by fit and price.

All sweaters are not equal, the true value of the sweater comes from the quality and quantity of the yarn used and workmanship (cut & sew / fully-fashion). A cheap sweater will use inferior quality yarn, possibly blending it with man-made material and then reducing the tension (degree of tightness) so there is less yarn used. Finally, you will find most inexpensive sweaters use cut & sew manufacturing versus the more expensive "fully-fashioned" in order to reduce the manufacturing cost.

At Wilkes & Riley we insist on using only Zegna Baruffa Cashwool extra-fine Merino wool, then we ensure maximum tension is used during the knitting phase so the sweater will "ping" back into shape after each wear. Each sweater is developed using special fully-fashioned knitting machines to ensure the best fit.