This is Roomy Raglan. The pattern is written by Jules Efterfield and is available to buy on Ravelry or as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop.
Full disclosure, neither I nor Sue made this jumper. Anne-Marijke very kindly knitted it for us - in super quick time! We are familiar with the pattern and we have a copy printed in the shop if you want to check it out before you commit to making your own.
The graded version has 6 sizes but there is also a free version which has one size. The designer has written other versions too, using different weights of yarn.
Roomy Raglan is knitted at a chunky gauge of 14 stitches per 10cm by knitting two strands of yarn together. We used one strand of Rico Melange Chunky to knit our shop version.
Melange Chunky is a self-striping single ply chunky. It's a blend of wool and acrylic and is soft and lofty (lightweight). The stripes are thick and thin and so work well in seamless garments where you knit both the body and sleeves in the round but over different number of stitches. Sometime a more regular stripe pattern can give narrower stripes on the body v's thicker stripes on the sleeves. A mix of thick and thin stripes can hide this.
As the name suggests Roomy Raglan is designed to be a roomy jumper. The designer recommends a positive ease of 9-18"/22-45cm. That means it should be 9-18"/22-45cm bigger than your chest size. The finished size of the first size is 50"/126cm.
You obviously don't need to follow this guidance.
It's also a good idea to check out the photos of finished jumpers on Ravelry (here and here) as you'll get to see it on real bodies and not just an armless mannequin.
And you're welcome to try on our Roomy Raglan to give you an idea of size. Ours is the first, 50"/126cm, size
There's two sleeve options in the pattern. We've done the bracelet length sleeves that have a wide finish. Again not really clear on the mannequin! 😆
The jumper is knitted seamlessly from the top down with raglan sleeves.
You start by casting on your neck and then you work a rib.
The cast on specified is a Long Tail Cast On method. Which gives a neat stretchy edge. This is good tutorial from Very Pink Knits on YouTube for a standard Long Tail method.
You'll then do some German Short Rows to shape the neckline and raise the back higher than the front whilst starting the raglan sleeve increases.
Short rows just add extra rows in a specific area. If you've never done German Short Rows before you will find this tutorial by Purl Soho helpful.
Anne-Marijke found that the move from the thinner rib needle to the thicker body needle at the same time as working increases and short rows was quite tricky, as the stitches were so small. So she knitted one row round on the larger needles before starting the neckline shaping.
After the short rows, you'll then continue to work increases to create your raglan sleeves.
The increases are made using the Make One method, i.e. you'll be creating a new stitch from the strand between two stitches. This is good photo guide to knit and purl Make One increasing.
Once you've finished your raglan increases and you've got the correct yoke depth the sleeve stitches are separated from the body. You'll knit the body round and round and finish it with a rib.
The pattern specifies an Italian Bind Off with double knitting set up rows as your cast off method.
I don't like classifying knitting techniques as beginner or experienced as people are different in both their learning styles and knitting motivation. But I would say that an Italian Bind Off is a more involved cast off than just casting off in pattern.
BUT the Italian Bind Off is lovely and when done well does elevate your makes. However, in this instance, we just cast off in pattern which still gives a stretchy edge.
If you want to try an Italian Bind Off with double knitting set up rows, this tutorial at Ysolda is good.
Once the body is done you go back to the sleeve stitches and work round and round to make two sleeves and then cast off.
I was attracted to this pattern as several visitors to the shop had made one (or more) and it looks great on! They also recommended it as good first sweater pattern and I would agree.
Obviously, there may be lots you you haven't done before: Long Tail Cast On, German Short Rows, Make One Purlwise, Italian Bind Off.
But each technique is very common so you'll find lots of help online... and you could just not do the Italian Bind Off.😆
One thing you do have to do is use circular needles and knit in the round. This gives you two great advantages over knitting your jumper in pieces (back and forth).
- You don't have to sew any pieces together.
- You can try your jumper on to check for size as you're knitting it.
Secondly you do need to place stitch markers where the pattern tells you too - on the needle, between your stitches. This will help keep your raglan increasing in a consistent line and tell you when you are starting a new round of knitting.
Remember we're always happy to help with these techniques if you get stuck, both in the shop or via email.
To recap:
You can by Roomy Raglan on Ravelry or as a digital pattern in the Pittenweem shop. There is also a free version.
You can buy our Rico Melange Chunky yarn on the website or in the Pittenweem shop. We used Shade 084 Autumn Sun for our jumper.
You'll need 693m for the 50" chest/bracelet length sleeves which is 9 balls of the Melange Chunky. 50" is the smallest size for this chunky version. If you want smaller sizes check out the other versions... but they are all... roomy!
