The dimensional stability of cotton weft knitted fabrics has a major impact on their consistency during production. The characteristics of the cloth, the characteristics of the structure of the knitwear, the pattern of the fabric and the technical process conditions affect the geometric and dimensional stability of the knitwear. To maintain the dimensional property of knitted garments the study of the effect of shrinkage and occurrence of stretch in various processes is essential. In this study, the typical areas of stretch occurrence are found and analyzed. The main goal of this work was to investigate the stretch behaviour of knitted fabric during drying at different chemical processing areas, and the influence of stretch conditions on finished knitwear shrinkage. In different processing machines, the shrinkage potential of knitwear samples was collected and the amount of elongation was determined. Samples were washed and dried in domestic conditions after studied how the finishing process affects the shrinkage and dimensional stability of knitwear during its preparation.