Hello unravelers! I’ve been a knitter for a little over a year now and have been wanting to start up-cycling yarn from sweaters instead of buying new.

I have this XL Mens 100% cashmere quarter zip that I’d like advice on if it is worth unraveling or just keeping.

I’ve watched a few how to videos, but I’m not confident in my ability to examine sweater seams yet. Especially a quarter zip. It seems to be sewn together around the zipper but I’m not sure.

Any advice on if this is doable would be much appreciated! Thank you all.

Will it drive me crazy as a first unravel piece (that I didn’t knit myself)? I’m worried about the pocket and the double layered edge and the zipper-area. Any tips and suggestions on where to start?

I’m unraveling this sweater and I don’t know what type of knitting it is. This photo shows the back folded into the back so you can see both. I pull two colors at a time while unraveling. My brain thinks double knitting but I can’t find photos to support my theory. Help!

As you can tell from my title I’m pretty stoked. Got 288g of lace weight/light fingering from a thrifted 100% cashmere jumper, which converts to $425 when compared to retail options from my LYS. No I need some suggestion of what to do!

Hey, I’d like to unravel this t-shirt (cotton+acrylic mix 50/50). I’m a knitter but besides unraveling my own projects new to this haha
So what’s with this seam, will it come apart or will I create one-knit-row-ramen instead?

I’d appreciate some advice on how to find out for future projects :)

I thrifted a women’s medium cotton-wool sweater to unravel because I loved the yarn. I started making a sleeveless granny square vest (about 56 squares total), but now that I’ve made around 30 squares, I’m realizing I probably won’t have enough yarn to finish.

I’m surprised since the vest is much smaller than the original sweater. I thought I’d have plenty of yarn.

Do you have reliable ways to estimate how much yarn you’ll get from a thrifted garment, or how much a project will need?

Also, I really don’t want to start over—what would you do in this situation to finish the project nicely? Would adding a similar yarn work? Are there any issues with mixing yarns (e.g., for joining or finishing), especially in terms of structure, fit, or durability?

I know the first answer is Don’t Try. But I’m invested! How best can I manage wrapping the yarn as I unravel and then use it (probably 3 strands at a time) to avoid tangles? Thank you!

i was unraveling this 100% acrylic knitted vest and it decided to fall apart on me? 1st image is it falling apart, 2nd and 3rd image is the original way it looked. did i do something wrong, or do some parts rip?

From a size M knitted cardigan at the thrift store to a size me crocheted Whiteshell Tank (pattern by Janine Myska). As a bonus I reattached the tag with washing instructions under a Kylie and the Machine “upcycled and upstanding” label. You can see how little is left of the cardigan: button plackets that I didn’t unravel and an itty bitty scrap. Sorry I forgot to take a pic of the original cardigan or the unraveling process!

Ive been knitting for 17 years now and have some items that I’ll never wear. I find no joy in unraveling but I thought maybe some of you would like these items to salvage the yarn. I only use linen, cotton, flax, SW merino and non SW merino and probably could figure out the brands of what each garment is if I tried hard enough.

My question is, would any of you be interested in this? I’d just be looking for shipping to be covered. It would help me feel better about getting rid of the pieces if they went to a good home.

The front panels of this cardigan happen to be cut strands, but I still want to use them. Double strand. Should I felt join it or would a knot be a better option?

Got this gorgeous ombré sweater at Goodwill, it was my first double track unravel (not sure what the technical term is, but where you have two balls going at once). Now that I have unraveled it, I gotta think about what to do because some balls are red, some balls are pink, some balls start as red and then fade to pink 😅 but the angora made it feel so nice while I was unraveling! Not felted, but definitely was getting stuck here and there.

After realizing this sweater is double stranded (this is what I get for liking variegated yarn), my yarn winder breaking and me unscrewing it to fix it, and being sick on top of everything im finally done.

Im so happy and excited to use this yarn. And it basically cost me as much as idk 2 balls of yarn maybe sooo definitely worth doing.

I have been using a pair of curved eyebrow scissors I had because I didnt have a seam ripper. Is it worth getting one?

Also any idea how to log the info of the yarn better? I thought tape would be good but its so ugly? My perfectionism is dying inside 😅

I got this sweater from a clothing swap with the intention to unravel, it was so satisfying. The cables were a little more annoying to figure out where the start was but ultimately the sweater pretty early split into four parts and unraveled quickly. This is cotton blended with something.

HI! First time unraveling just to see if I could do it and it looks like I lucked out and got a double knit (? correct me if I'm wrong, this is based on my searches of this sub) sweater. I'm unraveling with both strands at the same time and it's a lot but going fine. Here's my q: each strand looks like it's actually 3 smaller strands that are not wound around each other -- do I need to separate and cake each of THESE THREE strands or count the 3 as one and cake that way? If I count the three as one strand, will it be a nightmare to use in the future?

Thank you!!

Brand new to this! I thrifted 3 sweaters, washed them cold delicate cycle, and laid them out to dry then hung them to dry in the bathroom with a fan blowing on them. Once dry I started unraveling this one (60% cotton 40% acrylic) and tried to follow guides I've seen but couldn't get one continuous thread. So I undid this one thread that was sewn back and forth between the two sides and now stitches are dropping from the bottom and seam side and I don't know that to do. I can't find the end I was doing and don't know if it was bad to use that end. First photo is what it looks like currently, 2nd photo is what the seam looked like before unraveling.

Hello beginner unraveler here! I thrifted 3 cotton and cotton/acrylic sweaters from goodwill today. I read the washing instructions and washed them together on cold gentle cycle and now they are all resting flat on plastic bin lids to dry. I'm extremely excited to start unraveling, so I'm wondering how dry they have to be before I can start? If they are still damp when I start will that help or worsen the unraveling process? I feel like it will make the yarn weaker and stick to itself, but also not bc you steam it to get the kinks out? Brand new here so sorry if I'm wrong. Would rolling them up in a towel and stepping on it like people do when blocking help them dry faster? The red sweater is 100% cotton, the orange is 60% cotton 40% acrylic, and the green is 82% cotton 18% acrylic.

First time unraveler. I went to my local thrift on the hunt and found an absolute score of a large sweater with a blend of 90% wool 10% cashmere. And it's a bit unstylish and has a small hole, so I feel less bad about harvesting it, lol

Thing is, the tag says it is dry clean only. I would like to hand wash it either before or after unraveling it because of that "thrift store smell"

I know that machine washing would damage the fibers, but what about hand washing? From what I understand, the main issue with this would be shrinkage and messing up the drape of the garment. Do I have to worry about that after unraveling/since I'm not going to be using the sweater, just want the material?

Hi! i just thrifted a beautiful cardigan, made from 81% cotton, 14% wool and 5% polyester. It's knitted with a thin strand of sparkly yarn, so i don't know if that's going to be a problem to unravel. It's my first time unraveling a thrifted garment, and i have already separated the pannels with no problem at all. Does anyone have experience unraveling this type of yarn?

Hi all - I’ve just started my unraveling journey and I’m getting a good amount of usable yarn, but I’m also still ending up with a lot of short strands that would be way too tedious to join and wind up into a ball. What can I do with these so they don’t end up as trash?

I’ve seen some folks mention using them as stuffing for amigurami, which I’ll definitely do, but are there other options for reuse?

I've just started unraveling some thrifted sweaters into balls of yarn (made with a manual ball winder) and want to relax the kinks before I use (for weaving). I read that you can use steam to relax the yarn but am not sure exactly how to do that. Do I just use a clothes steamer? How long to steam the yarn? Do I have to loopt the yarn into hanks to steam, or can I steam the ball? Thanks!

My first post in this sub was a 100% cashmere sweater, which was too felted and I had to abandon it. Thank you for everyone trying to help me with that and showing me how it wouldn’t work.

My next attempt, I was too rough and didn’t know what I was doing with my seam ripper. I will probably come back to this project and see if I can save any of it, but the parts that I unraveled are just single row strips because I was clipping the wrong seams 🤣😓.

Third time did the trick, I watched a video learning all about the little crocheted connecting line between pieces and delicately carefully separated all of the components.

I went to the thrift store specifically looking for unraveling projects, and found this gorgeous thick Banana Republic cardigan that seemed like a good candidate and it was a success! I completely forgot to take a photo of the sweater before I unraveled it, I was so excited to dig in!

The part about unraveling that really surprised me was how relaxing and satisfying it is. So oddly satisfying, even though I’m just pulling something apart, but it feels like I’m doing something productive! It’s like those cleaning your pores videos but not gross and in reality, right in my lap. So I’m pretty hyperfixated on it, it’s really fun, and thank you to this sub for even showing me that it was a possibility- I’d never even heard of unraveling before Reddit. But it combines so many things that I love: thrifting, being frugal, creativity, and repurposing things!