Raglan

Raglan is the construction I use most often. 161 of my patterns are built this way. Here is what it means for the fit, why I choose it, and which garments you find it in.

What raglan is

In a raglan garment the sleeve runs in one diagonal line from the neck down to the underarm. There is no shoulder seam and no square armhole — just four slanted lines that meet at the neck.

In my patterns the body and sleeves are knitted separately from the bottom up. Then they are joined on one circular needle, and decreased towards the neck in four equal lines. The decreases are the pattern itself; you see them clearly on the finished garment.

Why I use it so much

Raglan forgives. A shoulder seam sits where it sits, and either it fits or it does not. The raglan line spreads the width evenly, and the garment follows the body instead of hanging from it, and it also makes the garment more feminine and neat.

It is also the easiest construction to knit right the first time. There is no sleeve cap to calculate and nothing to sew together afterwards. That is why most of my beginner patterns are raglan.

Where it usually goes wrong

Place stitch markers in all four raglan lines before you start decreasing. That is the one thing that decides whether the lines come out the same length. Without markers you lose count on round four, and it shows.

And if you decrease too fast, the neck gets tight. If you decrease too slowly, the garment slides off the shoulders. The pattern tells you how often — stick to it, even when it feels like a lot of rounds.

Yarn, needles and gauge

• 7 mm needle is the main needle in nearly all of them, often with 5 or 6 mm for ribbing and cuffs.
• Gauge 12 stitches × 10 cm is the house standard.
• Level: about a third are marked Beginner, the rest Beginner plus.
• Mohair dominates, often doubled or with a carry-along strand. The raglan line shows well even in airy yarn, because the decreases sit in a straight line.

If you want to change yarn, the gauge is what decides, not the brand.

How to knit raglan

Two videos cover what you need. The first shows raglan decreases on a jacket, the second how you knit the sleeves onto the body — the step where people most often get stuck. The videos are narrated in Norwegian.

Both are in Knitting School Part 6, together with v-neck decreases and the neatest finish on a puff sleeve.