So I found Garnstudio's patterns for Norwegian pullovers with yokes, some of which are worked top down, and I hoped that I would find videos that would help me see what to do.
The only one I found from Garnstudio was ummmm useless. All you saw were fingers twiddling wool and needles. There was no voice-over at all. This is true of ALL the Garnstudio videos and yet it's obvious from at least one of them that they were filmed WITH audio. I've let Garnstudio know how useless this is.
Top-down raglans are another one of those things that the people writing the websites and filming the videos don't give enough help on, for us first-timers. It's a case of they know so much that they forget how much help we need. Or they get lost in explaining design and ignore the basic how-many-stitches.
Most of the videos and some of the patterns also want you to do a "mid-back elevation" to "shape the collar". It requires short rows. There's never a photo of the difference to encourage you to do all that work. If you know of an exception, please post the link and help a sister out.
I finally found a free pattern for a baby raglan jumper and then tested it and realized you have to set the sleeve markers wide apart from the git go or you'll never even come near getting enough sleeve stitches. I think one of the websites did say that your sleeve stitches are about 1/3 of your total and that turned out to be just about right.
Why top down with raglan sleeves?
Well, there's interest in doing something other than set-in sleeves, and for people used to knitting each piece and sewing them together, this design saves lots of time. OTOH, so does using the Fair Isle techniques of knitting in the round and doing steeking across the armholes when you are going to add sleeves.
Top-down with raglan sleeves is perfect for multi-color yokes like in Norwegian patterns. Remember when I used Fair Isle motifs to design my own pullover? Well, similar motifs might work in a yoke BUT the increases mean you have to leave space in your design. So that pine tree motif would end up with the bases of the trees spaced way apart once I worked the increases down the yoke.
Top down raglan pullovers are perfect for your body-building boyfriend. If you work over two circular needles with long tethers, you can put the pullover over his head at any time while you are doing the increases to see if you've done enough, according to some knitters. Frankly, I would get all those measurements, not just chest but also shoulder width and circumference of his arms, and then calculate how much I had to increase to accommodate that. He might be in the gym when you need to be trying it on him.
As you saw from my last post, a top-down raglan is perfect for using up leftover yarn and making it look as if you planned it that way. If you decide not to be fussy about having the same color in every round, you might use up a lot of odds and ends and get some really interesting color zig-zags.
You now know how to do raglan sleeves for a sweater that buttons down the front but I'm not going there. I've tried them and I'm never happy with how the buttonholes turn out. I did see plenty of patterns for these so go for it if that's what you want. Personally keeping my chest warm is important so I like pullovers.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
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