Let’s sit down and chat about my husband’s raglan sweater
Inspiration
I try to crochet a sweater for my husband every year. He is awesome and completely crochet worthy. Every year I say, it’ll be a Christmas gift, but no matter how early I start it’s never ready on time. Please tell me I’m not alone. We can form a crochet “gifts are ready precisely when they need to be” club?
I will say, this year takes the record for the “longest a sweater has ever taken me.” It’s February 16 and the sweater is still not complete. Although it’s blocking, but it’s not complete.
Nonetheless, let me take you along in my sweater making journey. Please hop on and prepare for constant stops at Random intervals.
Our story starts in October. I visited visited a LYS (local yarn shop) with my husband and he picked out yarn for his Zelda inspired sweater.
The yarn:
Husband picked out Berroco Vintage an Acrylic, Wool, Nylon, yarn blend. The color is spruce, a deep “spruce” green with an inner light. No seriously, while the yarn is very dark it’s got a brightness to it. Spruce boasts lighter green heathers, and even some gold tones that make up the color.
The yarn is very soft to work with, it glides smoothly on the hook. Not only is it a smooth glide, but my 7 hanks didn’t have a single snag, which is always appreciated. The yarn is also advertised as machine washable but I’m skeptical. So far I’ve only soaked it and dried it flat for gauge purposes.
Because a dark yarn wasn’t enough I made my life slightly more difficult by working with a split ext-sc stitch. The technique is similar to that of the waistcoat stitch (central single crochet or split single crochet) and you can see how I work it up in this YT video . Crocheting the sweater was made slightly more bearable with a Furls Odyssey crochet hook, the head tip is especially good for separating the stitches.
Construction of husband’s raglan sweater:
I decided on a top down Raglan construction because it’s very mindless, you always increase in the same 4 points and after you separate for the sleeves it’s just a round ya go! Then, you attach yarn and work up your sleeves. Of course, it’s much more time consuming than that, especially because of the stitch I chose, but you get the idea.
Measurements
- Neckline – 7.5″ measured flat
- Width – 22″ measured flat
- Gauge – 12 rnds x 12 sts in 4″ with a 5mm furls hook
- Length before rib – 22.25″
- Length after rib – 25″
- Sleeves measured after the slip – 21″
- Armhole depth – 8.5″
So how did I make my husband’s Raglan sweater?
With a 4.5mm crochet hook, I worked 80 fsc (foundation single crochet). Then I joined with a sl to the first fsc to close the round.
Once the foundation sts were done I switched to my 5mm furls Odyssey crochet hook. I worked [ext-sc, ch1, ext-sc] in the first st, I then worked 28 ext-sc, then [ ], 10 ext-sc, [ ], 28 ext-sc, [ ], 10 ext-sc, sl st to the first ext-sc to join in the rnd.
For rnd 2 onwards, split ext-sc in each ext-sc, [ext-sc, ch 1, ext-sc] in each ch1 space, join with a sl st to the first split st, or continue working in a spiral but marking your first st.
I repeated rnd 2 until the raglan inc measured 8.75” (we measure this at a diagonal from the first rnd to the last one we’ve made.
You can join me for a calm moment crocheting this sweater in this reel.
Splitting for the sleeves
After completing the desired number of rounds, these are typically based on your armhole depth, separate for the sleeves.
Work an ext-sc in the first ch space, split ext-sc until you reach next ch space, ext-sc in ch space, ch8, skip all the sts until you reach the next ch1 space and work an ext-sc in this space, split ext-sc until the next ch1 space, ext-sc in the ch1 space, ch8 and sl st to the first ext-sc that you made in the rnd.
Now, we can move on to crocheting the body and sleeves separately. PSA after using up my second cake of yarn I decided to start crocheting my sleeves. Because I prefer the texture of the split ext-sc on the wrong side, I turned the sweater so that I was working the sleeves on the reverse side. For these sleeves I used a 4mm crochet hook.
Sleeves:
With a 4mm hook, start at the bottom of the armhole and work in EXT-SC around the sleeve opening, join with a sl st to the first st, ch1. I had 56 sts in the first rnd.
Work 2 more rnds of ext-sc.
Rnd4: dec 4 sts. 52
Continue working ext-sc for 20 rnds.
Rnd25: dec 2 sts. 50
Rnd’s 30 -35: dec every other rnd.
Rnd’s 36 -38: ext-ec
Rnd39: dec
Rnd40: ext-sc
Rnd41: dec
Ext-sc for 4 rnds, sc in the next rnd. This sc round is a good opportunity to decrease some stitches to cinch the cuff in a bit.
Cuff:
I worked 3 rounds in front post, back post sts. If you need an example of this, I crocheted this same cuff for the Granny Raglan Sweater.
The Neckline:
Since the raglan sweater tends to pull at the neck, I added some short rows ( I can’t believe it’s been 5 months since I uploaded that video) at the back of the sweater, probably could have added more but at this point I was saving the yarn because I was panicking. Once the short rows were complete, I did 2 rounds of rib and called the neckline complete.
The body:
After separating for the sleeves I completed 47 rounds of split extended single crochet and then 6 rounds of front post back post rib.
And that is it! Although, saying that is it after the hours worked on this sweater feels a bit like selling it short. Let’s try that again.
*Gandalf Voice*
Feast your eyes on this completed masterpiece!
Although that is a bit misleading because at the moment of writing this, I’m still working on the bottom rib… But let’s call my husband’s raglan sweater complete for now.
Do you guys enjoy top down raglan sweaters?
Video Chat on this Sweater
