My first go at unraveling, tried to find something that didn't look too complicated, with decent yarn thickness. Cotton blend, only unexpected catch was it was double knit, I think that's what it's called with two points to pull from? But overall not too bad and almost 16oz total! Now to decide what to make with it

I am still a beginner at unraveling preloved garments, and I would appreciate advice from someone who is more experienced. This garment is a cashmere and wool jumper, and it has a collar that runs around the neckline and a faux opening running down the torso (mimicking a closed cardigan opening) that is also a wool blend. Both the collar and faux opening appear to be attached to jumper with a seam showing on the opposite side. Please see the photos that show the jumper's seams.

I was hoping to salvage the jumper's material to be used towards crocheting a scarf. However, I do not want to be left with significant amounts of small or short thread.

At first glance, there appears to be a number of thread points, including each sleeve (top and bottom), the decorative attachment and the bottom left the garment. So, it seems like it would be very problematic.

I would appreciate guidance on whether this yarn could be successfully salvaged. If not then I plan to cut it into blanket squares and then combine it with hand crocheted squares to make a checkered mix-pattern scarf in addition to perhaps upcycling smaller areas for socks and ear muffs.
What do you think?

I found this one at a Goodwill when it was color of the week, so I only paid $3.50. It was very, very eighties with a sort of quasi-poncho construction in the arms, masses of sequins, giant shoulder pads; I really suspect it was going to end up in a landfill. It’s 70% lambswool, 20% angora, 10% nylon; it’s against-skin soft and 2-ply, I’m guessing it’s somewhere around laceweight or light fingering.

The back was mercifully sequin-free. The sequins on the front, however, took a couple of hours to remove; I ended up doing batches of flipping it over, cutting the threads crossing across the back of the fabric, and then flipping it back over to pull off the affected sequins. I consider it to have been worthwhile because the yarn is very good, definitely do not do that for synthetics or cotton. This was also a side-to-side construction apart from the ribbing obviously, first time I’ve seen that in a machine-made sweater. There was also some hidden cutting in the neckline sadly, so I have a sequined rectangle from the middle of the front piece that I’ll keep for now in case of yarn chicken (at least the yarn will wet splice if I need it to). There’s still a bit of it drying in the bathroom, then I can be finished with it until I come up with a project for it! I’m thinking more along the lines of various accessories for this one honestly.

I received this really soft alpaca sweater from a friend, and after a lot of help from this community, I was finally able to finish unraveling it. I might still look into steaming it to get rid of the wrinkles.

First unwravel, and when I went to undo the seam down the middle of the back panel, it seems to all be in one piece? Is the seam fake? Advice on how to proceed from here? Looks like a giant mess 🥲

I know this will make experienced unravelers cringe, so sorry in advance for butchering this sweater so badly. I’m new to knitting and crocheting as of this year and have wanted to try unraveling. I got this sweater for free, it did already have some holes and fraying, and I know the yarn is pretty small especially for someone new to unraveling, but my attempts to find the correct seams have really destroyed it and I’m no closer to finding the right way to proceed 😢

Anyone have any advice for saving it?

On a positive note: The drawstring unraveled really nicely, so I got at least a tiny bit of yarn from it and a taste of what a proper unravel should be like…

Projects always go really slow for me between classes and work. This was no exception. The grey is a very thin very luxurious feeling cashmere that I bought for $3 and unraveled back in 2024, and the taupe border is a ball that I thrifted for less than a dollar. It’s always kind of sad finishing a really long term project, now I have to find another background project I can fall back on when I want to knit mindlessly!

I have mohair yarn that I don't use I did once and I can't stand the texture now so I'm giving it away it's because this yarn the company that made it was discontinued in the 70s I'll send a picture if people are interested in comments

Hi ! First time on this sub ; I got this cardigan from my mom, and I love the color, but it's too small for me as is and I kinda want to reuse it in another pattern.

I never unraveled anything before, and this makes me especially confused because I'm pretty sure it's not crochet, but it also doesn't look like knit to me ? (I know almost nothing about knitting though so obv I could be wrong) To me it looks like maybe it's machine knitted ?? I have no idea, but it makes the unraveling part all the more stressful to me, because I'm scared I'll just end up with bits and pieces ?

Obviously, you can tell, I have no idea about anything and I'm confused about everything 😂

I tried to take multiple pictures of it so if anyone could enlighten me... 🙏🙏

This is a quite fuzzy yarn, so it kind of sticks to itself, and it's also two yarn sources used alternately, to create striping.

So it's kind of stubborn, but I think I've cracked its code.

I just want to thank those who recently mentioned the Caydo electric swift they use to help unravel sweaters. I've been active with this hobby for years and the skeining of the yarn has always been my least favorite part of the process. I have a swedish wooden swift that I just spin by hand and if I'm doing a lot of unwinding, my arm gets sore. I finally treated myself ($80) to this device and I LURVE HER!!!

I'm surprised at how sturdy she is and so quiet. I usually unwind while watching TV at night and my husband said it was much quieter than the old one. I was able to frog an entire panel of fine cashmere directly onto the swift in just a few minutes. Seriously, if anyone wants to step up their unraveling game, this is the way to go!

I’ve just unraveled a sweater that I previously made with Drops Nepal and now I have a bunch of yarn that’s quite squiggly. Do I need to do anything with the yarn to make it straight again or can I just wind it up and use it right away?

I've had this sweater for a long time, and really like the material but don't like the fit anymore, so I'd love to make something else from the yarn.

I've been watching videos about unraveling, but I find it really hard to tell what a seam should look like to be able to unravel the sweater. Does this look like I could unravel it? Or is it probably cut out from a bigger piece of fabric?

Let me know if you'd need any other pictures to be able to judge this!

Just sharing a current project. I loved this minty sweater but the style was not my vibe.

The yarn is so tiny that I don’t know if it’s even worth trying to reknit this into something wearable. It’s SO Big on me, the neck is too big, the sleeves are too long, it’s unwearable. Should I just cut it into fabric panels instead and try to make something new?

First time Unraveler. My friend gifted me these thrifted sweaters to unravel. I’ve put some holes in them but have had zero luck getting them to easily unravel- am I doing something wrong? Are these seams serged? I’m very new to this and could use some advice. The yarn is getting tighter if I pull loose ends. Thanks!

This one nearly broke me around row 40 when I realized I'd miscounted the cable repeat on the left front and had to frog back two evenings of work. Used a merino-alpaca blend because I wanted drape without the itch, and honestly the alpaca made it float in a way I didn't expect from a cardigan this size. Blocking took three days because I live somewhere humid and impatience is not a virtue in this hobby.

Happy to answer questions on the cable pattern or the yarn substitution if anyone's eyeing something similar for winter.

Easily the nicest yarn I've been able to get! I'm so happy with this, I'm telling myself I need to properly finish at least one WIP before I cast something on in this. I found it at a Goodwill shockingly enough; it was the most expensive sweater I've purchased for unraveling ($9), but super worth it imho for the quality of yarn. I got 295 grams in total; any length longer than about a foot got wet spliced into a skein since it's a 100% non-superwash wool.

It was fully fashioned and pretty easy to unseam once I found the chain stitches, since the patterning on the yarn was somewhat difficult to find things on. It took a while to unravel it all though since it was a very fine gauge (holding triple gets to the edge of fingering) and in an all-over rib. Not felted, but it's still wool so there was a little grip to it.

My current thought is to use it to make a basic stockinette cardigan (I think any patterning would just get lost in the color), potentially with KnitPicks Stroll Fingering in Agate Heather (also thrifted, got the ball for a dollar) in the ribbing and button band. Hezea by Maria Amelie but with no bobbles is my current thought for the pattern since I like the silhouette and I can get gauge with it. Let me know if that sounds like a good or bad idea!

Thrifted, washed, dried and gained 400g of cotton yarn. I was honestly surprised at how quickly this whole process went as a total newbie whose makes bags not clothes! The actual separating, unraveling, and winding took about 2.5 hours.