The Knitting Fiend

My pattern generators always tell the user to work a “standard” 2 stitch wide double decrease along the raglan shoulder shaping. I actually did work that on my Ball game sweater.

Still, some of you probably remember I didn’t work it on my “Husband Sweater” I knit for Jim. I wanted a bolder looking raglan slant, so, I substituted a 4 stitch wide raglan decrease. The 2 stitch and 4 stitch wide decreases are almost identical, you just shift the double decreases out a stitch to work the 4 stitch wide decrease. I like to do this on sweaters with knit-purl combinations, because it emphasizes the raglan slant.

Well, once again, I’m going to substitute a decorative for the simple raglan decrease! In this one, I’m spreading the “ssk and k2tog” apart and shoving in a cable. You can see how it looks above.

If you are a beginning designer, you might want to do something similar to dress up a fairly simple raglan sweater. You could shove in a cable, a lace insertion or anything you want. But, one tip: my 6 stitch insertion for the cable ends up about 1 3/4″ wide. When knitting a sweater for an adult, that’s about as far apart as you can spread the ssk and k2tog without risking weird fitting problems around the neck. So, don’t make it any wider. You’ll also need to examine the pattern and figure out whether the two cables are going to ram into each other as the number of stitches on the sleeve decreases below the width of the insertion. When it does, you’ll have to “decrease in pattern”. That’s almost always nearly impossible to describe how to do in word, but easy for advanced knitters to figure out by eye while knitting. It tends to throw beginning knitters unless they have a tutor to help them figure it out.

Ok, so here’s how to work the cable into the decrease!

Decorative cable inserted into decrease

When you begin, you will have a marker inserted between the front and back stitches. I took it out by the time I photographed the cable, however, it was right smack dab in the middle of the cable.

Now, one thing you need to know, when you decrease for a raglan sleeve, most people will find they are told to begin by working 1 decrease row every 4 rows, and then switching to 1 decrease row every 2 rows. The instructions for the cable involve twisting every 4 rows. Ideally, you will twist on decrease rows. I’ll give the instructions for each region.

Instructions when you decreasing every 4 rows:

• Row 1a: Knit until 3 stitch remain before stitch marker. [purl 1, k2, slip marker, k2, purl 1] repeat for all 4 shoulders, work to end of the row.
• Row 2: Purl all stitches. ¹
• Row 3: Knit until 5 stitches remain before stitch marker, k2tog [purl 1, place next two stitches on a cable or sock needle and hold stitches behind work, knit into the next two stitches , slip marker, knit the two stitches on the cable needle, purl 1], ssk, repeat for all 4 shoulders, work to end of the row. (This row decreases two stitches and twists! The photo to the left shows the two stitches on a needle. I’ve stopped using the stitch marker after working a few cables, so you won’t see it in the photo. )
• Row 4: Repeat row 2.

If you compare this to a simple raglan decrease, see I’ve just inserted the instruction inside the [] between the (k2tog, slip marker, ssk) which would be the normal raglan paired decrease. The instruction inside the [] describes what to do to create a 4 stitch wide cable bordered by garter stitch on either side to make it stand out.

The instructions change slightly when you are decreasing every 2 rows:
Work like previous instructions but change row 1a to:

• Row 1b: Knit until 5 stitches remain before stitch marker, k2tog, [purl 1, k2, slip marker, k2, purl 1] ssk, repeat for all 4 shoulders, work to end of the row

Notice all I did was add the k2tog and ssk around the cable. So, now you’ll be decreasing without crossing the cable on row 1; you will decrease and cross the cable on row 3.

I want to comment a bit on the cable. The instruction I provided tells you to hold the stitches behind the work as illustrated in the figure above and to the left. This causes the cable cross to slant in this direction”//”. You see the stitches on the bottom left slanting up and to the right.

You can also work a cable to slant in this direction “”. Just hold the two stitches on the cable needle in front of the work, knit the next two stitches, then work the stitches on the cable needle.

If you are persnickety, you might decide to modify the directions I provided to make the cable slant “//” on the left side shoulder and “” on the right shoulder. But, that’s entirely up to you. Of course, that’s what I actually did. Why do you think I have pictures of both?

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1. Note: These instructions are described when inserting a cable into a stockinette sweater knit back and forth. If you were knitting stockinette in rounds, you would knit all stitches on this round. If you were knitting in a pattern stitch, you would knit in pattern stitch but be sure to work the stitch just before the cable instruction as it presents itself– so that diagonal looks like stockinette from the front.