I am knitting the Saven sweater pattern by Meghan Babin. I am nearly done as I have reached the raglan neck portion of the front piece. I have knit, ripped out large chunks, and repeated the process several times. Each time I have altered the pattern to remove more and more rows, but my front piece is still 3-4 inches longer than the back. It is identical in length at the underarm bind off.
I have never knit a raglan sweater before, so is it normal for the front to be longer than the back and will this work itself out in the seaming?
Welcome to the forum!
Usually the front and back decrease at a similar rate to that the raglan seams match and match the shoulder saddle and sleeves. At least the measurements are closer than 3-4 inches and sometimes the front is a bit shorter than the back. Have you matched up the front and back to the sleeves and saddle shoulder?
It sounds like you’re not the only one having problems with this sweater and the front/back length.
This project knitter has some suggestions that worked to even out the difference.
and also here:
I have worked raglans that had to be ripped back to adjust the rate of decrease so that the yoke (above the underarm bind off) matched at front and back, and wasn’t too long.
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Did you remember to continue the raglan shaping the same as the back at the same time as working the neck shaping on the front? There’s a part of the top after neck shaping which says work even until 8 sts remain (4 sts each side) I’m just wondering if you have been working just the neck dec until 4 sts remain each side rather than the neck and the raglan decreases? If the front raglan is worked as the back raglan (upper front/yoke: work raglan decs as for upper back yoke) then it should be the same size and decreased at the same rate.
Just a thought.
It’s a beautiful sweater!
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Thank you! This is my first raglan and first cable knit. It has gone fairly smoothly until this last part. I think I figured out the issue based on Creations reply. Hopefully, this will be the last time I rip it out.
I think this is the problem. I didn’t realize what that instruction meant so I just did the neck decreases, but now I get it. I went back and looked at the pattern and I missed out on a lot of decreases. Hopefully this will be last time I rip it out! Thanks for your help!
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It’s never nice ripping back but at least you’ve worked out the solution.
It might help to make a small chart with row numbers in one column, raglan decreases (as for the back) in the second and neck decreases in the third column, this way you can see all decreases needed at once and tick off the rows as you progress. You could also add a fourth column with stitch counts which won’t be given row by row but you could calculate and this would give you a way to double check each row as you progress through. It would eventually end with those 4 sts either side. If you wrote down how many total rows you did on the back (underarm to shoulder) you can also make sure your total rows on the front are going to be the same. Sometimes jotting down the rows and stitch counts before knitting can help show up discrepancies.
You chose a heavily cabled sweater for your first cables. I’m really impressed, this is a complex sweater, it’s so attractive too.
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Oh those “At the same time” directions. Good pick up, Creations!
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So many things going on at once in this sweater. Easy to miss something.
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I’ll definitely have to do something. Hopefully I followed the pattern exactly on the back. 
I don’t remember making any alterations. I’ll never make the mistake of marking my row counts on my pattern print out and then erasing them to make room for the other side again. Next time, I’ll write them down in a notebook. I have one, I was just being lazy.
I figured if I was going to learn cables I might as well go all in. My son loved this pattern and it has been pretty smooth sailing. I’ve had to learn how to fix a couple missed cables but until I got to the neck that’s the been the worst of it.
Thanks again for your help!
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Your son loving the sweater is the best reason there is for making it.
Enjoy the rest of it.
