The anatomy of a sweater

Hey, hi, hello!

A while back, I thrifted some really lovely and colourful mini wool skeins and decided to make a scrappy sweater with them.  I didn't have a particular pattern in mind, but knew what shape/style I wanted the end project to be.  

With that in mind, I decided to take a sweater that I LOVE and use that as the guideline for building my own sweater!

I can remember the first sweater I ever made.  It was the So Faded Raglan from Andrea Mowry. It was intimidating at first, but since has still remained one of my all time favourite knits.  The ease of a top-down raglan, trying on as you go, while experimenting with different colours was super fun and I wanted to try something similar again but with different weight yarn.

For this particular sweater I am using Danielle White's Magic Custom-Fit Raglan template.  Danielle provides all of the information you will need to design your own custom fit sweater.  Here, I'll be showing you my process and template in case you want to follow along! 

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What you will need to create your very own custom fit raglan:

• A sweater that you LOVE to take measurements (plus take your own body measurements)
• Yarn in whichever weight/fibre you like
• Corresponding size knitting needles (I use interchangeable knitting needles!)
• A measuring tape 

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The first thing I did was take my own body measurements, following that, I took the measurements of the sweater I love while it was laying flat on the floor. (Measuring both will allow you to know how much ease you prefer in the final garment!) I made my own schematic in my notebook and kept all of my sweater measurements there. After I took my measurements, I made a gauge swatch using Danielle's instructions in the pattern template (26 stitches and 4" of rows). 

A few things to note from these measurements:

• The neck circumference of this sweater is quite a bit wider at 20" than what I would normally wear, but I want to add the turtleneck feature to it.  This way, it will have enough room and not be too tight around my neck.  If I was doing this for a standard crew-neck I would make it about 16".
• The length is destined to change as I want this custom sweater to be longer than the hight/low, swoop/cropped nature of the sample sweater.
• I decided to make a shorter raglan after re-measuring the length from my collarbone  to my underarm because I didn't want "droopy arms" (see diagram below).

One of the most important parts of creating your own custom sweater is a gauge swatch.  This is imperative so that you can fill out the diagram in the sweater pattern template. Here is what mine looks like: 

This is what the sweater looks like at this time! I have been picking away at it periodically over the past few weeks, and can't wait to finish it just in time for cozy sweater season!

If you decide to make your own custom fit raglan, I would love to know! Please share your progress in the comments, or tag me on instagram @louis_and_jane! 

xx
Laura