As someone who likes to knit, crochet and recycle, I think this is AWSOME!!!! Thank you for sharing!

I've held onto a cashmere sweater that has a couple tiny moth bites in it with the hope to re-purpose it. After seeing this, I think I can now. :)

You are so correct - so many tutorials are like “viola” without explanation. As someone new to knitting fiber arts, this is the best tutorial I have found. Thank you 🎉❤

I love unraveling and knitting with recycled yarn. Personally I think it feels so much softer and nicer during the knitting process if I wash and unkink it. I sometimes use my clothes steamer and wind the yarn on the swift to straighten it instead of washing it, which is much faster. In any case, I get to use yarn I would never buy at retail prices and it's so satisfying!

This is such a great and helpful video.
One point that you touched on was that massive amounts of clothing are constantly being shipped overseas to different countries.
The idea might seem as if it is nice helping the unfortunate. That was true a decade or so ago.
Now those clothes are thrown in piles,where they are left to mildew in dirty water etc.
The do sell some of those items back to tourists but not in huge quantities.

A lot of the free shipped clothing goes to waste.
Plus the taxpayers pay for the shipping,  port, and fuel costs for the massive heavy loads of free clothes.
Thank you for including this in the video.

I’m currently knitting a sweater with reclaimed yarn from a cashmere sweater. I have the same philosophy as you - too many garments are being produced and if I can reuse yarn, save it from landfill, save myself some money, etc. makes total sense to do so. Even though I’ve unravelled multiple sweaters you did teach me a couple of tricks. One was finding the v (knitted) thread with the bar (purled) thread for easier unravelling. The second was unraveling directly onto the ball winder. Game changer.
I normally don’t steam out the kinks and like you found it usually doesn’t matter. However, I knit an all over ribbed hat from reclaimed wool yarn and I did find the stitches didn’t look as even, even after blocking. I think if the hat was in stockinette that would probably have allowed the kinked yarn to smooth out more.

I once took a Goodwill sweater apart to have yarn I used to make a ceramic sculpture (the yarn is soaked in slip- sort of liquid clay- then shaped, dried, and fired). I think recycling is a terrific practice.

I was going to ask you about the washing part but you touched on it in the last minute of your video. Growing up I used to help my mother with unravelling any yard - longer process than yours. First the yarn would be wrapped on one arm (between the thumb and elbow), tie a piece of yarn at both ends of this big loop. She would soak the loops to release the kinks, then air dried, and last but not least I would hold each  loop between two hands and she would roll the yarn into a ball. 😊. A lengthy process but this was what she used to do!     Thank you for showing how to unravel store bought sweaters. I yet have to find  in a thrift store a sweater I love in order to try to unravel it your way and knit it. Love all the sweaters you knit. ❤❤❤

Thank you so much for touching on reusing yarn. Its such a great way to give things new life, lighten our carbon footprint, and typically save money ! Thanks again for this helpful tutorial  !❤

Brilliant!

I would never have thought of doing that with a shop bought sweater. I've done that with a me made sweater, but wow. Food for thought.

If I don’t use a lot of the yarn in my stash before one of my daughters sees the situation I’m in , I will  be asked to take mental competency exams.   I will unravel and reuse yarn one day but it will be a while before I can join in this worthwhile approach to sourcing yarn. Thank you for another helpful video.

Thank you!  I'm working on a Rivendell (Sari Nordlund) sweater right now in reclaimed cashmere yarn.  Re: steaming/washing:  my sweater is made from five strands of yarn held together (from three laceweight/cobweb-maybe sweaters I unraveled).  in the case of such fine yarns I do recommend steaming the frogged yarn before using it because it makes it much easier to wrangle the five strands into a single yarn for knitting with.  Tensioning is much easier.  I get my sweaters from thrift stores for an average cost of $5 each, and so I have to work with what I can find locally, and finer weight yarn is usually what I end up with.  I agree that if your original sweater is fingering weight  or heavier you really don't need to do the extra washing or steaming step to get a wonderful result.  Your daughter is SO LUCKY!!!

This is great! I have thrifted lots of clothing over the years, and more recently am trying to declutter but have been wanting to do something with the cashmere sweaters I'm not keeping (which often don't make sense to donate, nor command fair money for what they are when consigning). This coincides with my having acquired a standard flatbed knitting machine. Perfect timing!

Thank you for a closer, clearer look at this.

I can see adding this technique to my crochet skills.

OH this is soooo good and helpful. I have watched videos before about using reclaimed yarn and unraveling but your close up and the discussion of the "V" really helped me to understand it better. I have tried to do this before but was not successful. I am going to try it again with this new knowledge.  Thanks so much!

Thank you thank you thank you for this video. It's probably the most detailed easy to follow video I have watched. I recently bought a sweater at a yard sale and got home and realized that I really don't like it but now I realize that I can take it apart and make something that I love

Reminds me of how we opened a large dog food bag in the old days, that was sewn with twine along the top!

I can separate the pieces just fine, but sometimes starting them from the top to unravel is way more difficult than the one you showed. The cap of the sleeve has been cast off in steps! It’s very difficult to find the starting thread on those. But I have been unraveling sweaters for years and definitely have saved a bundle on cashmere and other fine yarns. I don’t tend to unravel cotton sweaters. I look more for wool. Cashmere socks are just amazing!