The raglan rant - knitting a sweater bottom up

Sometimes things are really simple, but your over complicated thinking process leads you away from the solution. Far away, like into a deep forest were wild boars try to eat your toes and squirrels throw nuts at your head. While I still admired moss and leaves and tree-trunks, my fibre friend @muscara already found the way out: try the d*** thing on!

Dear reader I am writing about my knitted raglan sweater. After concentrating for weeks on sewing, with my still unfinished Mimi blouse and my ill-fitting pajama pants, I wanted to feel accomplished. In my mind I already imagined you writing wonderful comments full of compliments like „wow, the sweater fits you perfectly“, „the bottom up raglan construction is so interesting, I never tried this myself, „you really are my knitting inspiration“, „please, can you send me an autograph“… sorry, deviating, I accidentally wrote my fantasy of crafting omnipotence down.

For some weeks I worked on this bottom up raglan sweater from „Vogue knitting. Very easy sweaters“. And truly, easy it is. Back and front are the same. You start with a ribbing and than knit the short body in stockinette. The raglan lines are very deep, so that the sweater has super wide sleeves which I love. Also, the raglan decreases are accentuated by one purled stitch in front and after the decreases. Simple and effective. The sleeves are done in the same manner, only I omitted the ribbing as I was unsure about length and fit. The original pattern shows ¾ sleeves which are super wide at the cuff. I find this beautiful to look at but not very practical. As I am freezing fast, I prefer sweater with long sleeves. Besides I am so into balloon and puff shapes, that I still ponder to later knit the cuffs very small, to get a balloon sleeve.

But as easy as it should be, I somehow made a mistake. I finished the second sleeve two weeks ago and till then it is waiting for surgery – because it is much wider than the first. And I have no clue why. I always write down the rows while knitting and my notes tell me, that I have knitted two exactly similar sleeves. But look at the photo, the first sleeve has 14 stitches at the last row, the second one 23 stitches. WHYYYYY??!

I grumbled over this problem for the last days and I still have no idea how this happened. And I had no idea how to proceed before talking to @muscara. I was unsure if I should make the first sleeve wider oder the second smaller. I was trapped in a loop of if‘s and when‘s.
But she had such an incredible advice (remember, me lost in the forest, eaten toes and things):
Pin the sweater together and try it on.

Why didn’t I think of this? I was so paralyzed by my incomprehensible mistake, that I needed the fresh ideas of a fellow #needleworkmonday crafter to exit my own tangled up thoughts.
(Dear @justinsun please don’t let this platform die, or I forever must wear ill-fitting handmade garments – I really need the @needelworkmonday community)

So, here you can see me wearing the unruly sweater. I used clips instead of needles to pin everything into a wearable garment and to avoid being stabbed by my own needlework. After wearing the sweater, I guess both sleeve shapes would work, the smaller and the wider one. And as it is easier for me to make the second sleeve smaller, I will go for this solution. I will unravel the last 20 rows and insert triple decreases to get a stitch count of 14 stitches.
As I told you at the beginning of this post, sometimes things are really simple. 😂😂🤪

And again, an addendum: Although I now have a solution how to fix my knitting mistake, I am no longer motivated to work on the sweater as I find it looks unflattering on the front. The view from the sides and back is ok for me… but at the front it looks bulky and stiff 💩💩💩 I will sleep over over this and you will be the first to know if I unravel or wear it.

Thank you @crosheille for initiating and @muscara, @shanibeer, @marblely for hosting the #needleworkmonday. If you want to see more beautiful projects with yarn, fabric and most of all needles, follow @needleworkmonday. Or even better grab your needles and keyboard and join the #needleworkmonday community.

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