I’m trying out a pattern for a knitted baby cardigan. The baby isn’t due until December so I have time to trial a few things before deciding on a ‘final’ pattern.
I want to try it first because I haven’t knitted that many jumpers or cardigans, even though I would consider myself an intermediate knitter. I’ve knitted a baby jumper and cardigan last year, and I did learn a lot from those to things, but this time I want it to be perfect!
What I struggle with in patterns like these is when it says decrease at the beginning and end of each row. And it doesn’t specifically tell you what decreases to do…that really annoys me!
This is what I had figured out last year…
BUT
When I did this, the right side looked a different angle to the left as you can see on the photo below.
It’s not an optical illusion!
I was knitting the back piece first. And that is all I have done so far. It’s a raglan pattern if that makes any difference? Honestly, I stay away from raglans because I hate them! I tried knitting a raglan jumper a couple of years ago and it failed miserably (but I did the pattern wrong for that one haha!).
I just did some research and I was right with what I did! K2TOG and SSK are decreases usually used for raglans. Hmmm…
I’ll do the rest of it and maybe it will all fit together better once it’s all sewn up! I’m doing the bottom one in the picture – a newborn cardigan.
But for the life of me, I can’t figure out what I did wrong!
The pattern and yarn I’m using I bought from an online shop called Deramores and it’s by James C. Brett, Pattern Number JB 012.
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Find my latest post on Medium below. This one is my Progress Report for this week which is a new series I’m starting. At the end of every week I’m going to write about what I have done to work towards creating Passive Income Streams.
https://woollyorbit.medium.com/progress-report-1-july-476e32e5c1ee
Woolly Orbit 
It kind of looks like the right-hand side has more decreases than the left. I’m assuming that’s not the case but I’d double-check yourself on that. Usually the decreases are only on the RS rows and you’d work back without decreasing on the WS rows. It’s hard to tell from the photos but did the pattern have you working 1 stitch as a seaming-up stitch/edge stitch on each side that didn’t have the decreases worked in it? That might help keep it from pulling in as much (and would give you a nice solid column of stitches to seam into when you get to that point.
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I know I did the right number of decreases, and I didn’t see anything about a seaming stitch, you’re right about the decreases being on the right side, I only decreased on the knit rows. I might just keep going and see what it looks like all sewn together, maybe it won’t look so bad…I wish patterns would take an extra line or two to tell me what decreases to use, it would save so much stress!! haha! 🙂
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from my experience on the raglan decreases, the ssk is the end of the row and the k2tog is the beginning of the row because of the leans they make. My preference is to do from top down and putting the sleeve stitches on a holder and picking them up to finish after finishing the bottom. Everything is done in the round (for the sleeves you can use the 9″ circular needles or flexi flips and the 16″ circulars for the body) and nothing to sew up, woot woot. Look at Tin Can Knits on their Flax sweater (it’s a free pattern).
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A few people have suggested top down for raglans, I think that might be the way to go in future! I’ve heard of Tin Can Knits, I’ll have to have a look at the pattern, thanks for the suggestion. Maybe it will all look better once it’s sewn up! 🙂
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You could always knit up a top-down seamless raglan pattern and avoid all the decreases and seaming.
Your difference in angles could be a tension difference between knit and purl. Or a tension difference between how you work ssk/ssp and k2tog/p2tog.
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Yeah, it might be the tension, I’m honestly not sure why it looks so strange! I don’t normally do raglans, that’s a good idea about a top down pattern 🙂
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Have you tried p2tog tbl (through back of loops) instead of ssp? I’m not sure if it will make a difference to your slope but it might help? Also, the angles might look more similar once you’ve blocked and pinned it. Good luck!
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Thanks for the suggestion! This pattern only decreases on the knit rows, but the main pattern is a mix of knit and purl stitches, so maybe because I’m using a knit decrease on a purl stitch? I don’t know, this could get confusing! I think I might just keep going and see what it looks like all sewn together…it might look better together! 🙂
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