What is the proper way to unwind a sweater? It is too large. Do I wind it around my hand or on a board?I don’t want to stretch it. Do I have to steam it or anything when I have it unraveled? I am not looking forward to this as I am not a small woman and this will take something to do.
Is it one you’ve made, or a storebought one that you’re recycling? For handmade ones, I usually just knit off the original, the kinks work out when I wash it. For storebought ones, I just make center pull balls out of them, winding loosely. That seems to straighten out most of the kinks.
There is a center pull video under tips in the video section. 
Assuming this is a sweater you made yourself, have you considered turning this into a design opportunity? Can you rework the sweater without taking it completely apart?
I had a sweater too large in the front. So I cut it horizontally across the front. Knit a braid band. Created gathers under the bust & above the tummy. And made it into an empire waist top.
If the choice is to unravel the whole thing or redesign. I try to redesign. I figure what do I have to lose? If I hate it even after the changes, I can rip it out then.
This sweater is a cardigan which is knit from the neck down. I thought that I could unravel it to the yolk and keep unraveling till I come to the next lower size. It says now for my size that I have to have 98 stitches on the back, I thought that I could just bring it down to the 90 stitches of the next size. Then continue on and all the time invested would not be wasted.
I didn’t know if the yarn would stretch but I never thought of knitting right from the sweater itself.
That will bring the neck down, but it will make the neck opening larger and won’t affect the body size. :think:
Okay yes, you can unravel it from the bottom to the top until you have the number of sts you want. The knitting from the sweater would be if you’re going to start over again from the beginning and you don’t have to do that. Just wind a ball with the yarn from the lower part of the body.