Using a steamer to unshrink sweaters

The most common advice seems to always be soaking a shrunk woolen garment in a mixture of water and hair conditioner or baby shampoo to relax the fibers, then blocking and stretching back to a normal shape.

I have done this. It is cumbersome and has never worked for me (and I am an ace hand washer, so I’m not sure that it’s user error.)

Then I read about how dry cleaners will reblock garments by steaming them. I have a beloved vintage sweater with the most wonderful mix of rainbow colored fibers that started its life with me as a loose weave and got shrunken by accident. I have tried the wet bath stretch trick on it multiple times, to limited success.

30 minutes of carefully steaming and then gently stretching back to size (be careful to not burn your fingers) and the garment has relaxed, loosened up and returned to its previous proportions.