You’re not doing that, though.
You advocated unraveling the thing and reusing the wool. How is that “defending the integrity of the artist”?
I also find it a bit absurd talking about “artistic integrity here” . The things come from a factory in Ireland and sell for 20 bucks on eBay. The company is an Irish version of LL Bean. Quit the histrionics.
As to the OP, eHow has a simple 7 step process.
I’d also be very careful when it comes to the blocking.
I’ve done this with a sweater which, already just on the verge of too small for me, went through a bit of rough handling in the washing machine and became very definitely too small for me.
So I went all the way and made it into a sweater for my 4 year old daughter.
It did become basically a felt item, but being quit thin and delicate to start off with it was still eminintly wearable. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was that the amount of shrinking really did wierd things to the shape. The neck and the sleeves hardly shrunk at all, mening they ended up rather too wide/long. The sleeves did, however, narrow up quite satisfactorily. The body for some unknown reason went the other way - shrank a lot vertically, but hardly at all horizontally, so it ended up rather wide and too short (it’s quite impressive to turn a jumper sized for an adult woman into something that’s too short for a 4-year-old!)
Fortunately, despite its defects, my kids liked it more than I ever had.
If that’s the case then fine; I assumed it was hand made. If not I don’t give a shit. As to the unravel/reknit, though I offered as the lesser of two evils, it’s still respecting the craft.
Right. A sweater is subject to gravity. Whether you knit on size 2 needles or size 10 is more likely to affect the length of the vertical loop; gravity keeps the stitches pretty much at their tightest horizontally. It still had the same number of stitches, horizontally, but those stitches became shorter in vertical length. They had more room to shrink vertically. Again, that was part of my original point: it’s more likely to make it unwearable than to simply adjust the size downward. At best it’s unpredictable; the most predictable outcome is stiffening and thickening.
It’s in the OP, the part where it says: Fisherman Out of Ireland. I assume you’re not familiar with the company, but the OP capitalized it. That should have given you a clue.
He never said it was handmade. Very few sweaters are. Next time, check the histrionics and think for a second. Even if it was handmade, sweaters aren’t holy relics.
Did you have anything substantive to add to this thread, or did you just drop in to annex it to the irrelevant pit thread and junior moderate?
How is it any of your concern, the tone I employ in a thread you have no other interest in participating in? How is it your job to tell me to “check my histrionics”? A mod comes into a thread for the sole reason of admonishing a poster; when did that become your job?
It’s a hint to get you to add something substantive.
You have posted nine responses and not one of them have told the OP how to shrink a 20 dollar sweater. How about you use your vast knowledge of textiles and answer the freaking question in the OP? It doesn’t have to be about you lissener; it should be about how to shrink a $20 factory made sweater. So, buddy, how should the OP do that?
I gave him a method in post 22, why can’t you?
If you want to destroy my sweater
Pull this thread as I walk away…
Oh crap.
You don’t wanna know what I did to my “wool of the covenant” sweater 
Hmm. Side question: Do you think the Shroud of Turin was made of wool? Did that wool come from the lamb of God?
And if so, how would you shrink it?
Give it to my late mother (Og rest her).
She used to shrink some of my BEST sweaters so small they’d fit Barbie’s Ken.
THAT and throw 'em in with cheap towels!
Q
This is not the thread for personal remarks about lissener, his personality, priorities, or proclivities. It you want to bash him, go do so in the current Pit thread. Keep this thread on ideas about shrinking sweaters. (lissener – that includes you – “you shouldn’t want to” isn’t a helpful response, because it’s not in any way equivalent to “you can’t, safely.”)
Happy New Year, y’all.
twickster, MPSIMS moderator