I am knitting the Semper Sweater by The Knit Purl Girl holding Knitting for Olive Soft Silk Mohair and
Jamieson’s of Shetland Shetland Spindrift double.
When I tried on my WIP (not blocked) today after having made progress on my first sleeve, I was disappointed to see the fabric bunching around my armpit/upper arm.
Despite doing in-the-round and flat, blocked, swatches, I discovered that my in-the-round and flat knitting gauges were very different in my project work. So after making several inches of progress on the torso, I originally had to rip back till before I joined in the round, then went down to needle sizes and made some rapid decreases (4 sts every four rows) to get the width that I wanted after joining in the round.
Did this cause the fabric to bunch around my arm? Is there anything that can be done that doesn’t involve ripping back a second time?
Your sweater is beautiful and so nicely knit. Luscious color, too.
This fabric at the underarm and sleeve seems to be due to the design. It’s seen in the details page on Ravelry and in many of the project photos. To me, it looks like it would need an adjustment to the raglan line to take in the extra fabric. @Mel61, what do you think?
It’s the design. Your sweater looks exactly like the pattern photos. It took me quite awhile to look carefully at pattern photos, to be sure they had the sort of fit I prefer.
The extra width would have to come from the raglan lines, which would mean ripping back. I also think it needs more taken out of the front side of the raglan line, and not as much from the sleeve. Maybe you could restart with a smaller size down to the armpit, then increase to get to your size for the rest of it?
Looking again at the pattern photos, the armscye is also quite low. This design is basically a t-shaped garment with raglan lines that seem to me to be more decorative than functionally shaping the sweater.
Oh gosh yeah I am super attentive to the ease in a design and arm hole depth - but now I’ve gained a new aspect to pay attention to.
The extra width would have to come from the raglan lines, which would mean ripping back. I also think it needs more taken out of the front side of the raglan line, and not as much from the sleeve.
Are you suggesting to have fewer increases, or more rows in between the increases, on the raglan lines?
I can’t help fix your raglan, all I can say is I never, ever make raglan. I made one for my son, that was before I realised we don’t like them and they don’t fit him, or me. It would take a lot more knowledge and experience than I have to modify a raglan pattern into something that would fit me or my son, I don’t have that knowledge so I avoid all raglan patterns.
I think the sort of fit you likely want would be better achieved with a set in sleeve. When you are a petite build, like you are, the bulk of the excess fabric on the sleeve cap and front, and too long an armscye all seems to be more noticable.
Your knitting is lovely, what a shame it doesn’t fit well.
I’m really not sure. My patterning experience is mostly related to sewing. If you were here in front of me (I don’t suppose you live in Denver??), I’d fold along the raglan line and pin through both the front and the sleeve (using stitch markers), to determine how much excess there is, and where the raglan line ought to go. I’m also do this on the back. And on both right and left, to be sure I haven’t pulled it off-center. Then I’d mark the centers of fronts, sleeves, and back and tediously count how many stitches I need across each section. Not every row, maybe every 6 rows? That would give an idea of the rate of increase needed.
But before I did all of that, I’d probably look for a different pattern!
Just for my own knitting education: why did the bunching/extra fabric only become apparent once the sleeves were knit? I’m attaching a photo of my sweater - and I really like how the half of my sweater without a sleeve (right), sits on my chest. In the image below, I’ve circle the same spot on both sides which were knit as part of the raglan construction. On the right, it sits completely flat/flush to my body. But on the left, there is puckering in the raglan area that wasn’t there before I started to knit the sleeves.
It looks like a problem with the angle of the raglan and the fullness of the sleeve top.
As ColoCro mentioned these sleeves look like they work as a T-shape, straight out from the body rather than curved to hang down next to the body. You can see the flare at the sleeve top even in the held sleeve sts. Those sts should be closer to the body. Maybe some short rows at the sleeve cap would help with the shape?
There is a good post on Talvi Knits about raglan sweater design and the compound raglan. It may help if you want to change the raglan line for a better fit.
Yup. There’s too much fabric in the sleeve cap–i.e. too many increases on the sleeve side of the raglan line. About halfway out from the neck it might have been better to increase the sleeve every other time indicated. Short rows might help, but there are already too many stitches over the shoulder.
Maybe some decreases under the arm?
Even in sewing, getting a nice sleeve fit is one of the trickiest parts.
@mez2113 I agree with the others - it looks like it’s the design, and needs to lose width in the front body / raglan rather than the sleeve.
I wonder if you can mitigate the excess fabric a bit by knitting a tighter and deeper neckband? That might cinch the fabric in and make that fold less obvious.
I often work the neck finishing before the sleeves anyway, as it does change the fit on the shoulders, and length needed for the sleeves. Good luck! It still looks great!
This is a common problem in raglans. Some designers and knitters have experimented with the basic structure to improve upon it.
I think the reason that it doesn’t show on the non-sleeve side is that the extra fabric has somewhere to go - see how the edge of the “armscye” is sticking out several inches from your arm, like a sort of flared cap sleeve? Once the sleeve is knitted, that sticking out bit is held flat against the top of your arm by the weight/structure of the sleeve and the extra fabric has to go somewhere.
If you hold your arms out to the side, as though you were doing the “A” in the YMCA dance, the extra fabric will probably redistribute itself.
This is an eternal problem with sleeves. Set-in sleeves look good when your arms are straight down by your sides, not so good when you raise your arms. Raglans look good when your arms are slightly extended but a bit rumpled if your arms are straight down or raised. Drop shoulders look good when you hold your arms out like an “R” in semaphore, but rumpled when they are up or down.
Regardless, I wonder if you would be be better off making a smaller size, and then doing a few short rows at the bust, to maintain the ease there, and keep the looser-fit feeling, if that is what you are aiming for.
I find this video tutorial helpful for top-down short row bust shaping:
Oh, there’s one other trick for shaping raglans: a shoulder “dart”. Easiest to do bottom up though. https://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/FEATfall04TBP.html
(Just mentioning for interest. I’m not saying you need to redesign the pattern to include one. Unless that’s the kind of challenge you enjoy, of course.)
Interesting article that touches on compound raglan:
Regardless, I wonder if you would be be better off making a smaller size, and then doing a few short rows at the bust, to maintain the ease there, and keep the looser-fit feeling, if that is what you are aiming for.
Oh no not aiming for a looser fit! I actually chose this pattern because it had the deepest V + smallest amount of positive ease that I could find. The one issue I run into is that the armhole depth in the smallest sizes aren’t long enough and the underarm seam is uncomfortably “up” my armpit! I usually adapt the pattern so that I add more rounds in between the increases, but I was worried about what that would do to the angle of v-neck so I didn’t here and I just knit the next size up. Oh well.
If I knit a smaller size, might that also help with the extra fabric that is on the “inside” of the raglan (eg not the sleeves, but on my chest)?
I wonder if you’d like this pattern? I’ve made this and can say the v is deep and the little detail around it is pretty. The smallest size, to fit 32/34 inch is a finished measurement of 32 1/4 inch. Would this be small enough for you, or still too big? Of course it has short sleeves but it sounds like you know how to modify a pattern so you could make long sleeves instead.
I have recently found that if I work an aran gauge sweater with fingering weight yarn it results in a fabric that is very snug and body hugging but also extremely stretchy so it’s easy to get on and off and the stretch fits bust, waist, hips without any shaping whatsoever (just the underarm bind off and neck shaping, no body shaping needed). The top I made is so body hugging that the modified drop sleeve actually fits like a set in sleeve. Obviously it’s a bit of an experiment and a bit of a risk but if you are struggling to find small patterns it could be an option to try. Some low budget yarn is good for experimenting with, I used Drops fable.
I have started over with a smaller size. But before ripping out all of my former WIP, I did some pinning and some stitch counting and calculated that I wanted ~20 stitches less in the front width and ~10 stitches less per sleeve width.
But the smaller size gives only 8 stitches less in the front and only 4 less stitches per sleeve than the former WIP/one size up.
So it stands that I will need to make fewer increases than the patter for the smaller size - which I’m prepared to do (with your help ). I need 12 less stitches in the front than the pattern instructs and 6 stitches less per sleeve than the pattern instructs. I can’t see myself well from the back but i can imagine I could do with 12 less stitches in the back as well**.
The pattern has you do some short rows and then you shape the yoke by:
1.doing raglan increases every RS row and do increases to shape the neckline every other RS, over a series of four row repeats*
2. doing both raglan increases every and increases to shape the neckline every other RS, over a series of four row repeats
3. divide for sleeves and body and cast on underarm stitches
4. finish shaping the neckline by increasing the neckline on the RS row and then knit/purl three more rows normally
The first thing that comes to mind is that in section 1 - I can do raglan increases only every other row for the first four repeats***. That would mean 36 stitches less in total, 12 of which would be subtract from the front, 12 of which would subtract from the back, and 12 of which would subtract from the sleeves (6 per sleeve).
I think this will make the raglan lines less T shaped, more of a gentle slope. I think it won’t change the neckline because we’re not affecting that design. Is there anything else I should be considering? Would I do short rows on the sleeves after dividing for sleeves/body?
thank you kindly in advance!!
** is that naive of me to take off the same amount of stitches from the back as from the front?
*** or for the last four repeats - would that be better/different/neutral?
You’ve planned this out well. Yes, having the same number of sts for back and front is a good idea. The back and front will have to come to an end at the same length or close to it so the raglan shaping should be similar.
Yes, I’ve worked a couple of sweaters with raglan shaping every other row to begin, changing to every row later.
I would be tempted to either graph this out or work the sweater or just the front from the underarms up on scrap yarn just to be sure.
