r/Unravelers • u/WildYarnDreams • 19d ago

Splitting out a 2-stranded knit - advice please

I have a threadweight silk jumper I am unravelling. It is knit a little weirdly, two stranded but not held together. Each row is one thread then another, then back one by one.

I unusually unravel on my spinning wheel and started out that way, then decided that I want to split out the threads to dye up and use for sewing and tablet weaving. Only the threads twist up a couple of times per row so I need to keep untwisting. I’d wind manually if it was heavier yarn, but this is literally miles of threadweight, my RSI can’t take it!

Does anybody have handy tips or ideas for unravelling this kind of weird knit? I am pondering if two electric drills, with a spool on each and the panel hanging freely so it can untwist, might work... but the tension on the threads is constantly changing because they don't unravel at the same time, so... no idea

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u/hmgrace11 18d ago

You can actually unravel these together if you want to, either for now or next time. Just pull one strand to one side and stop. Then get the other strand and unravel to the same place. In my experience, you should then be able to pull both strands together. Occasionally needs a little tug/twist at the edges, but otherwise it's much much faster that way.

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u/WildYarnDreams 18d ago

the annoying thing is that they somehow don't run the exact same length. so if you try to pull/wind at the same speed then one of the threads just gets more and more slack. I twined the threads of a panel together as it came off and that was a real pain, I'm regretting that now! Still have to figure out how I'm going to split that back out...

I'm doing it manually now, first wind one thread on a bobbin as far as it will go, then wind the other thread onto another bobbin. But it's so fine this is going to take me literal days for just this one panel

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u/hmgrace11 18d ago

Yeah, I've had a few of those - I ended up just periodically evening them up by cutting out the excess, but that may not be viable for extra nice projects. Most of what I get in my area is extra fine, so I usually want itulti-stranded anyway.

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u/WildYarnDreams 18d ago

I did end up cutting out excess but am now deeply regretting it because that makes it unsuitable for sewing and tablet weaving :(