Raglan

Name: O – The Skirt - The Statement Skirt
Brand: Cosymonday
Price: 130.0 NOK
Availability: InStock

Raglan is the construction I use most often. 105 of my patterns are built this way. Here's what it means for the fit, why I choose it, and which garments you'll find it in.

What raglan is

In a raglan garment the sleeve runs in one diagonal line from the neck down to the armhole. There's no shoulder seam and no square armhole — just four sloping lines meeting at the neck.

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

Why I use it so much

Raglan is forgiving. A shoulder seam sits where it sits, and either it fits or it doesn't. The raglan line spreads the width evenly, and the garment settles around the body instead of being hung on it.

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

Where it usually goes wrong

Put stitch markers in all four raglan lines before you start decreasing. That's the one thing that decides whether the lines end up the same length. Without markers you lose count on round four, and it shows.

And if you decrease too fast, the neck comes out tight. Too slowly, and the garment slips off the shoulders. The pattern says how often — stick to it, even when it feels like a lot of rounds.

Yarn, needles and gauge

7 mm needles are 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 second strand. The raglan line shows up nicely even in airy yarn, because the decreases sit in a straight line.

If you want to swap the yarn, it's the gauge that 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 to knit the sleeves onto the body — the step people most often get stuck on.