Update: I frogged this in Dec. 2023. I LOVE the yarn combo and want to use it in another project. I never really wore this sweater because I did not enjoy knitting it and that kind of stuck with me.

Final Thoughts:

• While I’m happy with the finished object, I’m somewhat disappointed by how this sweater is drafted. A number of project pages show the same issue that my version also contains - too much fabric above the bust moving towards the raglan seams. I have made many other raglans that do not have this issue. Had I realized this before I became invested in the project, I would have knitted another one - or at least adjusted the numbers. There’s also the issue of the unnecessary back neck short rows, which I opted not to do. At best, the issue blocks out. At worst, and fibre / tension depending, the short rows leave a puffy wedge at the back neck.

• On the other hand, the fabric created by this yarn combo is seriously gorgeous. The drape and hand are luxe and pleasing. And I made enough alterations so that the pattern fits my body pretty well, upper bust issue notwithstanding.

Sizing: I made a modified 2 - effectively shoulders, arms and armscye depth in the size 1, and full bust between size 2 and size 3 (with nominal waist shaping - eventually with circ of ~size 1 again).

How did I do this?:

• CO in size 1. I skipped the back neck short rows given how many knitters advised against them. I agree that, with this construction, the extra length at the back neck isn’t necessary. For extra seam structure, I did not do the provisional cast on.

• I worked one more of the Yoke, All Sizes 6-row repeats than size 1 calls for. This brought me to 204st. and gave me some additional length, which I think may be necessary, despite the fact that I have a shallow armscye.

Front / Sleeve / Back / Sleeve / Front / Raglan stitches
26st / 36st / 72st / 36st / 26st / 8st = 204st

• Next worked Size 34 Only, which instructed 7-repeats of a 4-row repeat.

Front / Sleeve / Back / Sleeve / Front / Raglan stitches
47st / 64st / 100st / 64st / 47st / 8st = 330st

• OK, I tried on the sweater yoke and realized that the sleeve depth was shorter than for the size 1 (though the sleeves were wide enough}. Went off road because I didn’t intend to rip back beyond the split for sleeves.

The armscye fit fix (with bonus deeper neckline):

• As of my first split for sleeve (the one that was too short) the straight depth was 7” and the diagonal depth was 7.75”. That’s generally long enough for me but there appeared to be less vertical ease with my yarn combo and I felt it was going to be a smidge too snug. I ripped back to the 330 stitches and determined that it would NOT be necessary increase on the back body or sleeves, going forward. Having said this, to get a good extra inch of armscye depth, I would have to knit 10 more rows before splitting for sleeves. Update: For me, given the angle of the raglan, optimal diagonal depth ~9” and the vertical depth should be about 7.5”.

• I also changed my desired circumference to 236st (~39”) at full bust depth because I required a stitch count that is divisible by 4, given that I had to continue to do the front neck incs, every 4th row, until I joined at the neck. (I took this as a given because that rate is what I used up to this point and what the pattern called for.)

• I was concerned that the neckline, as drafted, would be too shallow for me given that I have projected breasts (that take up extra depth). For me, with this v neck construction, depth at the top of the v should not be greater than 8” from the back neck beneath the neck band.

• See Mathy Alterations section below for the zillions of details on how I continued increases on the front body only.

Knitting the Body - After Joining in the Round:

• At this point, I started paying attention to the fact that I was potentially playing yarn chicken. As of 6.5” below underarm I had 123g left of my double stranded yarn. I wanted to knit - optimally - another 6” before starting 2” of hem ribbing. Didn’t help that the Cima has been discontinued. So it was time to put the body on hold and to knit the sleeves…

• I used 62g of yarn on the sleeves (31gx2) and 141g of yarn on the sweater body to full bust depth - which left me with 60g of yarn to complete the sweater body as of 6.5” below armscye and 4.5” below the base of the vneck.

• To save some yarn, and given that the bust area was roomier than I’d anticipated, I did estimate that I could have ripped back to the join at the v and redone my increasing differently (fewer increases overall and on front and back simultaneously). By doing this I would likely would have gained 1” of depth, which was desired. Having said this, the fit was pretty good around the bust, if roomy, and ripping back hours of work for an extra 1” of depth seemed extreme. So I kept on.

• In light of yarn limitations but also because I don’t love a curved back hem, I opted not to do the lower back short rows. From full bust depth, I aimed to knit another ~8” before I start the hem ribbing (at 11” below armscye), so that body depth from armscye would be 13” at a min. I also began decreases starting an inch below the full bust - or 7” before I intended to start the ribbing, to get from 40.5” pre-blocked measurement / 42” post-blocked measurement - to ~34”-35” at the waist.

• Turns out, as of 6.5” below (blocked) armscye, I had to decrease ~5” of circumference on the body, or ~28 more stitches from the current 218st count. Update: I opted to decrease 24 st in the end, over 7 decrease rounds, 4 st per decrease round. This gave me an extra inch or so of yarn to apply to body length. And a couple of grams to apply to an extra 2 rows of neck ribbing and 2 extra rows of sleeves.

• For future reference: The way I did the 2-st decrease rounds was K to m1, slm, k1, ssk, k to 3 st before BOR marker, k2tog, K1, slm. This aligns with the direction in which I did the increases.

• The way I did the 4-st decrease rounds was K1, ssk, k to 3 st before m1, k2tog, K1, slm, K1, ssk, k to 3 st before BOR marker, k2tog, k1

• Note: post-blocking the sweater mid-project, an inch of length was equivalent to 8R of yarn. I wanted to get a min of 52 rows out of 60g of yarn - 16 of which would be rib on smaller needle. I exceeded this number.

• I didn’t do tubular BO on any part of this project because I don’t like it. Bound off in pattern.

Knitting the Sleeves:

I planned to knit to the shortest length I could be happy with (12”) - but in the end I got almost 15” of length. While I CO 6st at the underarm (for 70st / size 2), I decreased immediately to 68st.

• A 12” long sleeve = 96R of length (to get half way between elbow and wrist). 1 - 2” of that would be cuff in 1x1 rib. At that mid/lower-forearm, I wanted the circumference to be ~7.5”. So I went with 50st at my gauge for a bit of extra wiggle room because ribbing snugs in. Here’s what I did:

CO 70 st
R1 Decrease 2st (68st)
K 8R / Dec round (66st) - repeat this sequence 8 more times (50st)

At this point I’d worked 83 of the 96R of depth (to get to 12”). Since I had more yarn left than I thought I would, I opted to work another 11R (to 88R) in stockinette and then worked 14R / 1.5” of 1x1 rib on smaller needles and BO. I got to 14” of length - having been able to add a few extra rounds - but I still only used 31g of yarn. And I got 2 extra rounds on each sleeve for another gram per sleeve at the end of knitting the body bringing the to almost 15” of length per sleeve.

Knitting the Neck Band:

• For starters, don’t bother with the pattern instructions and just use this Cocoknits tutorial: https://cocoknits.com/blogs/knit-tutorials/finishing-a-v-.... Others also refer to it and it’s really a very clear, simple presentation. I can’t say whether the pattern neckline instructions are actually incorrect, as some others have noted, because I didn’t get into the weeds. I just used a tutorial that I knew would work without having to fuss…

• I casted on an even number of stitches, starting with a knit stitch / with a knit stitch at the centre of the V. I had 61st on either V, 1 st at the centre V, and 59st along the raglans and back body (182st).

• As drafted, that the 1” of neckline at the back neck equals 2” of fabric depth at the centre of the v given that the centre front decreases are worked every round. Because I don’t like that feature of the neckline, I opted to do the S2KP every other round so that it wouldn’t pull in the neckline as quickly or as deeply overall. I knitted a slightly-deeper than one inch deep neckband (vs the ~2” neckband instructed). Update: I wound up ripping back the not-structured-enough neckline twice, till I landed on a 3mm / US 2.5 needle for a firmer fabric. That meant I needed to knit a couple of additional rounds to get to the same depth.

About the Yarns: The Cima (now discontinued) is much more robust than it looks and it’s lovely to work with. Quite soft, almost lotion-y. The KFO cashmere is very strange. Doesn’t feel like cashmere and it’s much stronger than any other 100 per cent cashmere I’ve worked with. In truth, I’ve not had many good experiences with 100% cashmere yarn so I’m grateful that this yarn is strong, even if it feels more like baby alpaca than cashmere to me. I do appreciate that both of these yarns are plied. I don’t knit with singles because I don’t like how single-ply yarn wears / how it tends to bias unless you match it with another single with the same amount of twist.

Pre-blocked Dimensions (Upper Body already blocked once):

Bust circumference: 41”
Hip circumference: 31” (stretches easily to 41”)
Arm circumference: 10.5”
Cuff circumference: 5.75”
Neckband width: 1.25”
V neck depth: 7.5”
Length along raglan “seam”: 9” (but stops at V neck rib)
Vertical armscye depth: 7.5”
Back neck width (taken from top of neck rib): 5.25”
Length from back neck below rib to hem: 20.75”
Length from under arm to hem: 13.5”
Depth of hem ribbing: Scant 2”

Post-blocked Dimensions:

Bust circumference: 41”
Hip circumference: 33” (stretches easily to 41”)
Arm circumference: 10”
Cuff circumference: 6.25”
Neckband width: 1.25” - admittedly, it’s 1.5” at centre V (so the ratios, while less notable, are still such that the V has more width than the rest of the neckband)
V neck depth: 7.25” (but I deliberately didn’t stretch this part of the sweater because I didn’t want a deeper V or a longer armscye…)
Length along raglan “seam”: 8.5” (but stops at V neck rib)
Vertical armscye depth: 7.0”
Back neck width (taken from top of neck rib): 7”
Length from back neck below rib to hem: 20.25”
Length from under arm to hem: 13.25”
Depth of hem ribbing: 1.75” (same as the depth of the cuffs)

Mathy / Alteration Section for Kristin Reference:

• When the 128 sleeve stitches are subtracted from the 330 st count, the circumference becomes 202 st. I’ve opted to cast on 6 replacement st at under arm (12 total) because it works with the total number of stitches I need to get to and it’s aligned with the instructed number for first size. So 202 + 12 = 214st. Note that 6 of these underarm stitches will belong to the back body and 6 will belong to the front. So as of split for sleeves, I’ll have 110 st on back body. My back is narrow so this works for me.

• 236st - 214st = 22st This is the number of stitches I need to increase on the front body - either at the neckline or the side seam - by the time I join at the neck / in the round. At my gauge and given that, having ripped back my initial split for sleeves, the yoke is at 7” of neck depth, I have conservatively 3.5” of additional depth (or 28R at my gauge) over which to make these front increases. I’m going with this number, rather than 29R or 30R because I can always knit up to 3 rows more, after my final neck increase, before joining… (Sidebar: Remember, 10R of these 28R will be used to increase the depth of the armscye… When I get to Row 11, it’s time to split for sleeves.) The row counts as of the start of this process is 49st for each front, 64 st for each sleeve (will not increase), 104st for back body (will inc only after underarm stitches are added in at the split for sleeves). At that point, I’ll have 110 st on back body and there will have been no additional back body increases.

• I know that starting with my next RS row (R1), I’ll need to do neckline increases - and continue to do them every 5th row until I join the neckline. Over 28 rows, that means I’ll increase 2 st, one on either side of the neckline, 7x. That’s 14 of the 22 stitches I need.

• Until the split for sleeves, continue to do “side front” increases 2 st from the marker that delineates the front from the sleeve. This is where the previous incs were knitted (though at that time the inc was right next to the marker, since you hadn’t yet taken the 2 selvedge stitches and moved them to the front body.

• Once you split for sleeves, 10R in, utilize the RS row in between the neckline increase RS rows to inc 2 stitches at the front side seam as follows, also every 5th row: K to 1st before side marker, M1L, K1, slm, knit to next side marker, slm m and m1R, K to end of row.

• At the end of this increase section, there will be 240st - 130st on the front body and 110 st on the back body and the depth will be at full bust (10” from back neckline). Note: I added 4 extra stitches at the end because I thought my gauge had changed such that it was warranted. As it happens, I should have stopped before 236 st (prob at 232).

How much yarn do I actually have? I’m going to hold 2 lace-weight yarns together. I have ~955y of the smaller-by-yardage yarn, though it’s heavier than the other yarn.

8.2y per g – KFO Cashmere
6.5y per g – Cima

147g of the longer yardage yarn (Cima) is equivalent in weight to 116g of the cashmere. So held double the yarn weighs 116 plus 147 or 263g. If my math is correct, each gram of this double-held yarn combo equates to 3.63y

FWIW: I’ll have 9g of the cashmere left over (well, really it’s more like 8) or 65y. That would come to about 32y if held double (not enough to do much with).

Gauge Swatches
US3
Pre-blocked gauge: 25st and 34-35R in 4” stockinette
Post-blocked gauge: 25.25st and 36R in 4” stockinette

US4
Pre-blocked gauge: 24st and 33.25R in 4”
Post-blocked gauge: 24.25 and 34.25R in 4”

Note - gauge changed while knitting to 25.5st and 34R in 4” (6.4st and 8.5R per inch) and the post-blocked above reflects my new gauge (not-blocked cuz I took it from the actual sweater while working on it)

For Reference - Other Patterns I Considered:

Cozy Classic Light - Jessie Maed 24st and 30R in 4” on recommended US5 Neckline too open for what I’m going for. (This is a pass.)

Beckett sweater - 24.5st and 28R in 4” (US 3 needle suggested) - requires about 900 yards. (Not vibing with this right now. It’s a pass.)

V Delicious Crop 24st and 32R in 4” in stockinette (US 3 needle suggested) Problem with this pattern, written by a knitting tech editor, is that it doesn’t provide the armscye depth in the schematic that comes with the pattern… (This is a pass.)

Material Girl Fingering - 25st and 34R in 4” of stockinette (US4 needle suggested)

Eva cardigan - Requires about 800 yards 24st and 32R in 4” - Try US 5 and US4. I think you used both in the original Eva that you made…