I've been going through the sweater closet, going through what fits, what doesn't, and what I need. I've frankly been dreading this, although so far, and I have only barely begun it hasn't been to bad.
The first sweater on the reject pile has been the rice stitch cardigan that I knit out of Karabella Super Cashmere back in 2007. Here is a picture of me wearing the sweater when I finished it, and here is a link to the relevant posts.
Now the sweater was fine then. But I am about 20 -22 pounds lighter now, and about 4 inches smaller through the bust, 8 or 9 inches smaller through the waist, and far less barrel shaped. The sweater literally hangs on me in a most unflattering way.
My decision now is whether to rip it and reknit it, or just give it away. I am inclined to rip and reknit for several reasons.
1. The yarn is really nice, fairly expensive, and I used a lot of it (20 skeins I believe) and it was a joy to knit.
2. I love the color.
3. It looks like it has held up really well, there is no apparent piling or fraying of the yarn even though I wore this sweater quite a bit over the winter and long spring last year.
My question is how well does cashmere hold up to rippng and reknitting? Good quality wool holds up pretty well, so I am assuming good quality cashmere does as well. If it were alpaca I wouldn't even consider it, alpaca can be difficult to rip just to reknit a problem area in a project that hasn't yet been blocked or worn.
If you have thoughts or experience please advise.
I will not be knitting the same sweater. Much as I loved this sweater, it is fairly firmly knitted and hangs straight without much drape. It would not flatter me now. I do expect to have some yardage loss in the ripping process but I should still have plenty to knit something quite nice, something in a looser, softer gauge.