Learn to knit raglan
The brand new Easy Peasy sweater is designed with raglan sleeves, which is a really beautiful, easy and classic way to knit your yoke. In the first Easy Peasy (Basic sweater), the increases were worked continuously across the entire yoke, which is called a circular yoke. In the new Easy Peasy sweater, you will learn how to knit raglan; a technique where you work your increases to form 'raglan seams’ and body and sleeves are knit simultaneously...
'Raglan seams’ is when the sleeves start at the very top of the neck, and follow the shoulder lines, from the neck to the sleeves. This results in a nice effect marking the transition between the sleeves and the body.
Raglan is a widely used technique for working increases when knitting from the top down. This way, you create enough stitches for both the sleeves and the body of your sweater. At the same time it gives a very nice design element and you also do not have to mount, ie. sew your sweater together afterwards.
See the Easy Peasy collection of easy knitting patterns for women here
How to get started with raglan
It is not difficult to learn to knit raglan - it just requires careful studying of the pattern, watching a video or two and a good portion of concentration.
In the Easy Peasy sweater with raglan, the raglan stitches start at the very top of the neckline, right after the rib. Here you already begin your raglan stitches, with the goal of creating more stitches for both body and sleeves.
The first thing you do is to divide your stitches to prepare for raglan. You need to set aside a certain number of stitches for the back, the sleeves and the front, and you do this by using stitch markers to indicate the places you need to work your raglan increases.
Otherwise, it will be impossible for you to see where to make your increases and the result will be a mess. It is VERY important that the raglan increases are made at the same place on each round, otherwise you get a crooked raglan.
Knitting raglan - step by step
Raglan can be knitted in all kinds of yarn, but if you are a beginner it is always easiest to knit with a single thread. Easy Peasy with raglan is worked in 1 strand of Önling No 1, and the result is super soft and fluffy. There are some different techniques for making the raglan increases. In the Easy Peasy pattern, the increases are worked as 2 knit stitches in one stitch
Knit to the place where your raglan should begin, ie your first stitch marker.
You make 1 increase by knitting twice in the same stitch, first through the front loop and then through the back loop = 1 increase. You do this on each side of the stitch marker, thus increasing with one stitch on each side of the raglan's middle.
Easy Peasy Raglan - always working increases on every second round
For the new Easy Peasy, where we knit in the round on circular needles, we knit every other round with raglan increases and every other round are only knit rounds.
When you have finished knitting raglan and have removed all the stitch markers as the patterns indicate, you have enough stitches to knit body and sleeves. Your work with increases is done and the rest of the sweater is easy peasy ;)
Knitting patterns with raglan
When you feel confident enough to try out other and more complex raglan techniques, Önling has a number of other patterns that are also worked with raglan. See, for example, Caroline sweater, Cornelia sweater, Bernadette, Benedicte sweater, Freja and Frigga V-neck - both of which are summer t-shirts; All are good and relatively easy beginner designs.
Furthermore, we have more patterns for sweater with raglan, at varying levels of difficulty.
From easiest first to most difficult at the bottom:
On Önlings webshop you can find many different knitting patterns for both simple and advanced knitting. We also sell our own yarn as well as kits and knitting boxes. We ship worldwide.
