Let’s take the iconic granny stitch, but make it into a garment. We now have a granny raglan sweater, easy, breezy and stash-bustingly adorable.
Inspiration and Design
If you are waiting for a very emotional reveal, I must disappoint you. What motivated this design was pure laziness or, perhaps, a better term for it , a TV companion.
Do you ever just want to crochet but not really think about the project? Let your hands work while your brain wanders and ponders the reason behind some lemon flavors = soap?
This is what I was looking for when I literally grabbed some yarn, from stash of course, and just “cast on” some stitches and let my hands do the work.
It turns out that one of the few crochet stitches that I can do without looking down at my work is the granny stitch. Do you need to constantly look at your work too or is that just my fear of letting go?
As established, the granny stitch is very TV watching friendly, but what about increases? In my opinion, the Raglan construction is the easiest to remember.
In summary, Granny stitch + Raglan construction = mindless crochet make which is just what the Universe recommends.
The yarn:
As you probably know, every year I make a pledge to use as much of my stash as possible. So, we venture into the depths of my curio cabinet once more and emerge with Drops Saffran, in Red and Green. Left overs from the Vintage waves sweater and the Fallalery top respectively.
I combined these with a cake of Lionbrand Comfy Cotton in the color cream? Or is it white? Either way, these were all stash yarns that I had enough of to pull together and make a sweater for Christmas. Though, my husband calls it the Caprese Salad sweater.
Perhaps you’ve already noticed, but I tend to work with a lot of cottons and honestly this sweater wasn’t going to be the exception. I think cotton is plenty warm enough for Florida climes.
Construction of the Granny raglan
Although raglan construction can be top down or bottom up (inverted raglan), to make this sweater as mindless as possible, I chose top down. I increased until the armhole depth reached 8” and then I split the sleeves.
Because raglan construction tends to pull on the front neck, I added some short rows at the back of the neck following The Vintage Waves sweater example.
Description
A stash busting mindless project that allows you to zen at the end of your day. Easy to crochet and adjust.
Granny Raglan Sweater
I want to share with you exactly how I went about crocheting my granny raglan sweater. It’s really quite simple to put together. Let’s go.
Measurements: After steaming
- Bust – 40”
- Waist 36”
- Neckline pre rib – 8” Post rib 7”
- Armhole depth – 8”
- To determine this, visit the craft yarn council or measure a favorite t shirt from the top of the sleeve join to the bottom of the sleeve.
- Length pre rib – 16” post rib – 18”
- Sleeve length (including cuff) 17”
- Sleeve width – 10”
- Cuff width – 6.75”
Gauge
Measured over 4″ post steaming 10 rounds and 5 granny stitches with a 4.25 mm hook – very important!
Post steaming – my gauge didn’t really change much.
Materials
- 405 g of yarn total for the measurements provided.
- Color 1 Drops Saffran (sport weight combed cotton yarn) in red
- Color 2: Drops Saffran in green
- Color 3: LionBrand Comfy Cotton
- Color 1.1 Cloudborn Fibers Crimson Heather (45/25/30 alpaca, merino wool,and silk) I only used this one for the sleeves as I ran out of the Drops Saffran.
Hook sizes:
- 4.25mm hook for the body
- 4mm hook for the sleeves and to pick up neckline stitches
- 3.75mm to complete neckline
- Yarn needle
- Scissors
- Tape measure
Stitches and abbreviations
- Sc – single crochet
- sl st – slip stitch
- Granny – 3 dc in the same stitch/space
- Granny corner – 3dc, ch2, 3dc in the same space/stitch
- Half corner – 3 dc in the same space.
To start
With Color 1 and your 4.25mm hook make 78 foundation sc. If you need to adjust the neckline work in multiples of 3. Join with a sl st to the first st, ch1
Rnd 1: Granny corner in the same st as the ch 1, [sk 2, granny st] x 3, sk2, granny corner, [sk 2, granny st] x 8, sk2, granny corner, [sk 2, granny st] x 3, sk2, granny corner, [sk 2, granny st] x8
We are now left with 2 sts that we will skip, sl st to the first dc to join, sl st fo the first ch 2 space.
Change to color 2 (green)
Rnd 2: In the beginning space, make a half corner, continue making a granny st between each granny st, and a corner in the ch2 spaces, until you reach the half corner, make dc 3, join with a sc in the first dc.
This sc takes the place of the ch 2 space and allows us to work in the beginning “space” comfortably.
Change to color 3 (white)
Repeat rnd 2 changing color every rnd until you reach the desired armhole depth. For me, this was 13 rdns and my armhole depth was almost 8”
Splitting for the sleeves
After reaching our desired armhole depth we are ready to separate the sleeves from the body.
[Make a half corner in the beg space, skip your shoulder sts (shorter part of the rectangle) and in the next ch2 space make a half corner], you have now separated for one sleeve, continue working a granny st between each granny st until you reach the next corner, repeat [ ] instructions.
We should now have two armhole openings, continue working a granny st between each granny, until you reach the beg half corner, join with a sl st.
The body
For the body we will be alternating how we start out rounds. In my opinion, this makes our joins a little more invisible. Also, remember that we are changing colors every rnd.
Rnd1: In the space created by our join make a dc, continue working a granny st between each granny, until you reach the space with the lone dc, make 2 dc in this space and join with a sl st to the first dc.
Rnd2: Sl st in the space, granny st, granny st between each granny, join with a sl st to the first dc.
Rnd3 onwards, repeat rounds 1 and 2 until your sweater measures 16” or desired length (measure from shoulder down).
NOTE: If you prefer a slightly less boxy look, do granny st decrease on either side (beneath the armhole) . I decreased twice.
I ended on a red granny rnd
Once the body of our sweater is complete, it’s time to move on to the rib.
Rib
As mentioned in the previous section, I ended my body on a red granny stitch rnd. Why? Because it’s the color I had the most of.
There are many different ways to crochet a rib, you can crochet it separately and then stitch it on, you can do a sc BLO st (see my sock patterns), you can work a front post back post rib, you can even knit a rib.
For this particular granny raglan sweater I chose to work a combination of hdc and camel st.
Instructions:
With color 1(red) and a 4.25mm hook.
Ch 9, work a hdc in the second ch from hook, sl st to next two body sts, turn. 8hdc
Row 1: Camel st (hdc in the very front loop) in each st, ch1 and turn. 8 sts
Row 2: Hdc BLO, sl st to 3 body sts, turn.
We will continue repeating row 1 and 2 until we have worked our way around the sweater and finished on a Hdc BLO row, sl st to remaining body sts and sl st up the sts to join with the set up row. Fasten off and cut your yarn
NOTE: you can alternate how many sl sts you use to join to the body of the sweater. If you find that your rib is gaping open, you can sl st to more sts. On the other hand, if you find your rib is shrinking too much, sl st to fewer sts to connect to the body.
Now are granny raglan is almost complete. Next week we will make the neckline, and the sleeves.
