Unraveling: Tips and Tricks

Dear users and authors,
do you have any tips and tricks for unraveling finished hand-knitted items? How do you smooth out the unraveled yarn?

Does anyone else have anything to add?

Well, Josefa, I don’t think unraveling is really a thing anymore. Back in the day, my grandma would sometimes unravel something to save money and knit something new out of it. These days, people tend to just buy new yarn.

A stitch pattern just doesn’t look as nice when you knit it with unraveled yarn. It’s okay for rough items where it doesn’t matter. But if you want the pattern to look really clear and beautiful, the yarn needs a smooth surface.

But aren’t projects that are still in progress often unraveled and then started over again?

I don’t unravel. Maybe 2–3 rows if I spot a “forgotten” stitch. If a nearly finished project turns out not to be quite what I wanted, I cut it open, take out the stuffing, and my dogs take care of the rest ;-) But that rarely happens. Usually, you can tell right from the start whether something will work or not. As for the finished items that I no longer have any use for once they’re set aside, I donate them to a children’s charity or an animal welfare organization. As Schnuckelina so aptly put it… unraveled yarn isn’t as nice anymore, and you can tell and see that. 

My mother-in-law used to take apart a lot of things: garments that were no longer needed or ones she was given that didn’t fit anyone. Most of the time it was very fine yarn, knitted with size 1–2 needles. She stretched the wet yarn over a pot, or rather wrapped it wet around a pot, and let it dry, then wound it into a ball. That way the yarn looks nice, without the waves. Now I just need to use it, but the yarn is so fine.
I’ve already knitted a patchwork blanket. They’re mostly such small balls of yarn.

I do that too with spun yarn; it has so much twist that I stretch it on a yarn swift and leave the yarn like that for up to two days or longer. After that I take it off, wet the yarn, and let it dry stretched out. This would certainly also work with “normal” yarn.