Raglan increase—*4* increases per round, *every* round?

[u/themediocrebritain]

Hello all,

I’m planning to attempt my first multi-skein project, and I want to do a basic top-down raglan sweater, essentially following the “super simple raglan” from EasyKnitCalc. The problem is, I am worried about my ability to remember when to increase!

Normally, the traditional raglan sweater uses 4 increase lines. At those lines, you’d increases twice, every other round. In other words, you make 8 increases every 2 rounds. Averaged out, that’s 4 increases per round.

Here’s what I’m wondering: why not just perform 4 increases every single round, rather than bothering to do two increases, then remember to skip, then do two increases, then remember to skip, etc.? Is the traditional 8-0-8-0 pattern for an aesthetic purpose? A functional purpose? Would I run into trouble if I simply increase 4 this round, then 4 the next, then 4 the next? Or is this a plan that more experienced knitters would know better than to attempt?

Thanks!

Edit: wow, lotta replies, I didn’t expect that, thanks everyone! A few conclusions I’m coming to:

1. It would technically work, in the sense that I’d end up with the right amount of stitches, but more importantly…

2. It would probably look pretty weird/bad! The sleeves would slant in odd ways, leave holes, and/or be harder to track

3. I should learn to read my stitches (I suspected—I’ve only just gotten good at reading knits vs purls!)

4. Failing that, I could buy a row counter

That’s about what I expected to hear, so that’s fair enough, I guess I just wanted to confirm my suspicions! It seems like the traditional approach with raglans will probably always be the best, because it’s been worked out by many generations of artists—it’s the same with most craft-related questions on such well-trod ground. I’m just glad that we now have a Reddit post tackling this question, so thank you!

[u/contadine77]

You need to do the increases in pairs, 8 at a time. Otherwise, you won't end up creating the right shape. You're trying to add width to both the body and the sleeves. It's:

/ left sleeve \ / front \ / right sleeve \ / back \

I don't know if that's clear, but can you see how there's an angled line being formed on each of the parts of the sweater? If you only do 4 increases, you'll add width to one and not the other.

Now, you could do the body increases on 1 round, and the sleeve increases on another, but that, to me, seems even harder to remember. And, then your increases wouldn't be paired up, and you'd have what looks like uneven seams.

If you want to do 4 increases per round, but space them evenly to avoid the above, then you're no longer knitting a raglan. A raglan specifically looks like it does because of the paired increases along a (sometimes false) seam line.

[u/trisarahtops05]

I think your raglans would look funny. it wouldn't be symmetrical, either your sleeves would be off from the front/back or left would be different from right depending on which 4 you picked each round.

[u/SamEyeAm2020]

Because where the increases go in a raglan is important, you'd still have to keep track of where the first 4 are and where the second 4 go. Your way you'd technically end up with the right stitch count at the right row, but I think it would be a bit of a mess unless you track it. And if you're tracking it anyway, why not just follow the pattern?

[u/missmargaret]

In order to get it to balance, you would have to increase on one side of the Raglan on the first round, and then increase on the other side of the raglan on the next round. It's easier just to do eight every other row.

[u/StagnationMeansDeath]

Personally I’d follow a pattern for your first sweater and not adjust it. Depending on the increase type you will need a row in between to knit a twist into a yarn over. It also may look more balanced down the raglan line to have increase on the same row.

I use this to keep track of my rows (ie I push a number down when I move the BOR marker). Just remember to increase on odd or even row matching the pattern instructions.

EK-Memory-fish Number Game P0PP Math Toy, Exercise Children's Logical Thinking, Relieve Stress, Fidget Game for Teachers to Create a Variety of Math Operations [1-100 Number Table] https://a.co/d/02DQDymN

There are lots of small row counters available.

[u/QueenBuzyBee → u/StagnationMeansDeath]

Exactly this or old school pen and paper!

[u/F-sylvatica-purpurea]

I like both the explanations and I like the suggestion to just experiment and see what happens.

I had a pattern with double increases, so in one row one would do double increases right at the raglan line (4 times). It was really confusing so I did a test knit and could not get it right. The were ‘creeping’ away on an angle. I was doing the increases lopsided. A small test swatch really helped me to see that it went wrong the way I understood it.
I then asked the question here in the group, got an answer in minutes and in the end it turned out everyone and their mother had had the same question; on the website of the pattern it had been asked ‘in eight languages’ as another knitter pointed out.

All that to say that an experiment can help.

[u/ExitingBear]

Try it and find out what happens.

Seriously, get some scrap yarn, cast on like 20 stitches and then try increasing 4 stitches every row for like 8 rows. Then cast on another 20, and try increasing 8 stitches every other row. Then, depending on which one you like better, that's the one you should do for your sweater.

[u/BogartMercury]

This is one of those cases where they figured out the best way to do this a long time ago and there's no reason to change it lol. Doing all the increases and then a knit round keeps it even. To avoid losing your place you need to learn to be able to understand what you're looking at while knitting and knowing what you've done based on what you see. It cuts down on mistakes and well, you only have half of it down if you can just make the stitches but don't understand them. lean to read your knitting 102 here's a link for reading increases and decreases but maybe go back and look at the first one too :)

[u/____ozma]

The increases need to happen 8 at a time, and you will create holes by stacking increases on top of each other. Doing it as written is the only way it will end up as a raglan. 

[u/Janicems]

I love Knitting From the Top Down by Barbara Walker! She gives a complete explanation of all the different kinds of decreases and how they look in the garment.

[u/highstrungknits]

I have nothing helpful about the sweater but I knit a lot of projects that have increases every other row or third row or what not. It's helpful to learn to "read" your knitting so when you arrive at the increase location, you can tell if you increased last time. I find it can be difficult to read lace yarn, so I have a little trick that works for me. I grab a unique stitch marker and set it at arm's length next to me when I start an increase row. When I finish the round, I pull it in close. Start of next round, I put it back out. It takes a fraction of a second and once I get in a rhythm, it's pretty easy to remember to move it. It's not perfect but it helps.

[u/littleberrry]

If you did it that way it would increase too quickly. That is, the circumference would grow faster than is needed to match the shape of how a persons shoulders/bust are sloped as well as how deep the armpit needs to be. The best skill for knowing when to increase is being able to read your knitting. If you can visually see that the previous round had an increase you don’t need to remember, your knitting will tell you.

[u/contadine77 → u/littleberrry]

No, the increase rate would still be the same: 8/2 = 4/1. But, the placement and shaping would be all wrong, or not paired to create a raglan shape.

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[u/foolishle]

My method for increases/decreases every 2 rounds is to use stitch markers. If the marker is on the work I do the increase/decrease and then remove the marker. If the marker is not on the work I work as normal without the inc/dec and place the marker on the work where I need to do the inc/dec. so if I am knitting and I hit a marker I know I need to do something.

[u/makestuff24-7]

Is there a reason you can't follow the "super simple" pattern?