Hi everyone. I’ve pulled down a finished jumper that turned out too small. It’s 90% acrylic and 10% alpaca chunky. I’ve mechanically wound it into cakes. It’s a bit curly. Should I treat it to remove the kinks or will it be alright in the end. The new jumper is stocking stitch? Any advice appreciated.
You’ve done the difficult part already by ripping out that sweater. It’s best to get the kinks out of the yarn by washing it. Wind it around a swift or the back of a chair. Then loosely tie the resulting loop of yarn at about 4 places around the loop to secure it. Gently dunk the yarn in a wool wash or even just water (whatever wash the ballband recommends), spin out or press out excess water and let dry. Most of the kinks come out and you have lovely yarn to re-knit.
https://www.ourdailycraft.com/2020/12/10/how-to-wash-yarn-used/
Yes, this is the best advice. Yarn that was already knit is not only kinky, but it’s flattened out so doesn’t knit nicely.
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My (probably controversial) view on this is to make a swatch, wash and dry it, and see if you like it. It might save you from the work of removing the kink and the time needed for it to dry.
I frog frequently and I don’t have the mobility to be removing kinks before reknitting. I have only had one piece so far which knit differently when i reused it and that yarn had been part of a sweater which had been washed and worn quite a lot.
Frogging a sweater which has been washed/blocked can make the yarn kinkier compared to one that has not been washed, it also depends in how long it has been knit for, what the fiber is and probably lots of other factors too.
I recently frogged a full sweater which had been knitted for several weeks but not washed, i reused the yarn without doing anything to it and it knit up perfectly, no problems at all.
I have also frogged a sweater which had been washed and worn many many times, my son out grew it, I added some previously unused yarn (so mixing mostly used with some unused) to make a new larger sweater. It knit up perfectly and can’t see the difference between the used and new yarn (it felt a bit different knitting it but the final fabric was even and neat).
A large gauge swatch (you’ll need a gauge swatch anyway) washed/blocked will give you the experience of knitting with it, which you need to enjoy, and to see if the resulting fabric is nice and even or totally awful.
There are lots of reclaim videos, this one is a little different, an experiment in swatches to see what difference it makes to straighten the yarn or not. This is with wool, different to your fibre mix, if you get to the end she advises running an experiment on acrylic to see the results.
Thank you to you all for your advice. I knitted a small swatch and blocked it. I didn’t like the results. So I created half a dozen skeins and hung them in my garment steamer. 30 minutes later I’d got perfect bouncy yarn 
Getting it back into balls was a pain in the a* tho. Not for the feint hearted.
Thank you
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You are on your way. I’ve only done this once or twice but was always happier with the second version of the project. Enjoy knitting something new and please let us see a photo when you finish!
Sounds like a great success!
Enjoy knitting your new sweater.
Probably too late to help this time, but if you don’t have a swift, you can put the hank/skein around the back of a chair to keep it from tangling as you wind.
I can’t believe the price of swifts. I put a Facebook call out to borrow one, unsuccessfully, and I’ll keep my eyes peeled for a second hand one. I used the back of chair to create the skeins but a mechanical winder and my arms to create the balls. It was a good workout for the midriff 
. Will post a pic when completed. Thanks everyone
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You can wind these hanks into balls as you go. They need not all be put into balls at once.
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I’ve heard it’s actually better to leave it hanked until you’re ready to knit it. The process of winding can stretch it, or if the cake/ball is tightly wound and it sits for years… I’ve also heard it’s good to wind it twice, as the 2nd time will likely be looser. But maybe that’s only if you’re working from a swift, as the weight of the swift imparts some tension.