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How to Take Apart a Sweater

September 27, 2024 by Sarah White

This starts as sort of a sad story about a sweater I wanted but didn’t end up knitting. Years ago I bought a figurative ton of bamboo yarn, and I thought it would be the perfect thing for a sort of boxy, oversized sweater I could wear on beach vacations.

I knit it in pieces, thinking the seams would add some stability the sweater would otherwise lack, bamboo being slippery and probably saggy under its own weight.

It was a cute sweater.

It didn’t fit like I imagined at all.

I think the problem was mostly that I made it too oversized, and the weight of the sweater combined with not fitting correctly through the shoulders caused it to sag and stretch and turn into a way off the shoulder sweater in no time.

Not exactly what I had in mind.

I wore it once or twice anyway, then it lived in the back of the closet for a few years.

I was cleaning out my sweater shelves the other day and found it again. I decided I still wanted to do something with that yarn that would be more wearable. It was time to rip that sweater apart.

Of course because I knit it and vaguely remembered how I knit it, that was a big help, but in any case the rules for taking apart a sweater are pretty much the same. It should be noted this is the strategy for handknit sweaters or tops; sometimes things are different when you’re working with a commercial sweater.

Just in case you might need to take a sweater apart one day, I collected my process in a post over at Our Daily Craft. It’s handy to have a reminder that if you don’t love something you made, you can always try again.

As for that yarn? I’m working on a crocheted tank top that I hope will have enough structure to do it justice.

Have you ever taken apart a sweater or other garment you knit? I’d love to hear your tips!

Next Pattern:

  • Take it Easy with this Sweater Knitting Pattern
  • Take Your Stitches in New Directions with this Knit Sweater
  • Take it Easy with a Bulky, Textured Sweater
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Have you read?

Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

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