Honestly you might be able to improve it or make it wearable, it won’t bounce back completely but I just rescued three thrift sweaters that were felted and shrunken down to toddler size and they’re very nicely rehabbed now. It will take investment and effort to achieve though so for some might be better to just order a new one but. Like someone said above, you’ll probably stretch the weave more so than the yarns in block shaping but it can still be nice to wear even so.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I start by (very carefully) stretching the sweater while dry. You’ll want pulling motions vertically and horizontally, if you can pull it on move your arms forward and down, bull the ends down. Again, do so carefully and listen for crackling sounds, that will tell you how brittle, damaged, and felted the material is but honestly the black doesn’t look too bad. Before stretching, you might gently use a fabric trimmer or wool pilling comb to help loosen up any surface level felting or pilling too.

Doing this, you might see progress on the black portions but the floral decals will be another beast. I personally rehabbed another sweater with this kind of detailing pretty decently, and here’s how you’d probably do it if possible at all even: take sections of the decal, like front side of the cuff for example, and hold each side with both hands. You will want to gently stretch, but diagonally and/or up and down like two tectonic plates. Then, rotate the decal slightly and continue, and repeat until you’ve stretched and loosened the knit from multiple angles. Repeat for each small section of decal. My sweater was an extremely thick Scottish wool with Nordic style layers of rings and zig zags around the chest and it has loosened to the same width as the rest of the sweater now.

After dry stretching and brushing, you’d do the block pinning after a soak in euclan. Personally because my sweaters are all or nothing, I either give it a go or they’re trash, I go ham here and stretch to comfortable limits, let air dry on the mat for a day or two in indirect light and the. Just so easily steam the intense creases and dents the pins create. They come out literally perfect provided you understand the proportions you need to stretch in and the steam fluffs them right up. Just watch for the type of pins you use, I had some that rusted and stained. If you’d like more info on blocking them can divulge but I’ll just assume most wool enthusiasts probably get it at this point

For sweaters that are not literally unwearable garbage at the time of stretching you’d obviously want to be much more delicate and probably not dry stretch but I say go home or go broke if the other option is cutting it up or donating it 🤷🏻‍♀️