Friday, May 27, 2011

Why I Love Raglan Sweaters

I know it's been a while. It's been crazy busy at work and life...oh, and I'm planning my wedding! Yep! My boyfriend proposed to me while we were on vacation in Aruba. It was perfect and the wedding planning is now in full swing.

Now on to the knitting! I was finally able to finish my Whisper Cardigan sweater that I was hoping to have in time for Aruba (oops.) It's great though and my friend Kristine would like one too. The yarn is already purchased for her. I'm using the same yarn (Malabrigo Lace - SO yummy) in the Orchid colorway. Perfect for summer, especially in the freezing cold terrain of our office.

Reasons why I love top-down raglans:


1) You get to start at the part of the sweater where all of the action is.
Countless times I've started a sweater that begins at the bottom and have gotten bored and quit before I made any headway at all. With a top-down raglan, you start off with the collar work and the sleeve increases right away. Then before you know it, you've got half the sweater done and you're on the downhill slope!

2) You get to try on your sweater as you go.
Nothing is worse that finishing a garment only to find it doesn't fit. As well written as some patterns are, women (and men) are not all the same size and shape. I love that I can make sure the sleeves are fitting before I close them off and begin the body of the sweater. I also love  toe-up socks for this reason.

3) You can finish the item (albeit a bit shorter than expected) if you run out of yarn.
Running out of yarn when working from the bottom up can leave you without a neck, or sleeves, etc. With top down, you can just opt for a cropped look!

I'll post some pics of my finished sweater soon, and the project I'm taking on while waiting for the Malabrigo to arrive.

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