R is for Raglan Sweaters

Raglan sleeve

Creating: Raglan sleeves are those that extend in a diagonal line in one piece from the underarm to the neckline of a garment.  It may be more clear once you look at the picture.  As I said in one of my previous posts, I am a fearless knitter.  Fearless or not smart enough to know my limits?  Either way, after my Fan and Feather afghan, and my first 2 Norwegian sweaters, I moved on to a cardigan with raglan sleeves.  I had asked my mother for a fisherman's sweater (aka Aran) for Christmas.  Her response was to give me the yarn, needles and a pattern book.  Ummm...thanks?  A do-it-yourself gift - to know Mom is to love her.  It took me years to complete the sweater, mostly because I took a several year break from knitting for no good reason that I have figured out.  I took it out again when I remembered the calming effects of knitting and was sorely in need of some clickety-clacking comfort (at the brink of my own sanity was where I was, but that is a story for another time).  I knit at work, in between cranky phone calls with cantankerous clients at a critically crappy corporation.  It helped some.  And my sweater progressed.  The back, then each of the 2 fronts (because of course I chose the cardigan pattern!), then the sleeves, neckband and button placket grew as I took deep breaths (and my anti-depressants).  I learned many new things - cables, popcorn and twists, shaping, buttonholes, pockets, and then finally seaming.  I discovered that although cables and other "fancy" stitches look difficult, it is all just knit and purl.  I love this sweater and the beautiful wooden buttons that E helped me select.  Someday, I may even knit another one. 

Stitch detail

A few years ago, I found a pattern in Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook that I really liked. It is called "Pinup Queen" but no, it does not make me look like a pinup. It is designed, though, to flatter one's curves. I knit it up with a yummy soft angora-blend yarn in light blue. This sweater taught be short-rows which came in handy when I started knitting socks. It has a deep V-neck which tends to get deeper as the day goes so I always wear a tank top under it. Now that I look at it, though, I realize it does not really have raglan sleeves... So it does not belong in this post but since I don't really have anywhere else to put it, and I already took the pictures, I will post here anyway.  Here is an example of "not-raglan"sleeves.

Until we knit again,

Hallie