The Monday Sweater by Petite Knit is a polished and simple raglan sweater. I wanted to knit this sweater to be a lightweight cozy spring sweater. It’s been a while since I knit a sweater, and I was excited to get started.
PLANNING
I read through the pattern and took my measurements. According to the pattern, I should make an XS but I usually wear a M. But because I wanted this sweater to be lightweight, I didn’t want too much extra fabric and decided to go ahead and make the XS.
The sweater is meant to have 6-8″ of positive ease and I thought that that would be a nice cozy fit. I started looking for yarn from Knitting for Olive because I really enjoyed using it while making my Moby Sweater.
YARN
I ordered 5 balls each of Knitting for Olive merino in Powder and soft silk mohair in Cloud. The Monday Sweater calls for both yarns held together and I was excited to knit my swatch.
SWATCHING
Using my Chiaogoo US 6 needles on a 20″ cable, I knit my stockinette swatch flat.
- required gauge: 21sts x 28rows
- my pre-blocked swatch: 24sts x 33rows
- my blocked swatch: 22sts x 28rows
After blocking my swatch sort of aggressively, I was able to get pretty close to gauge. I felt comfortable proceeding with this yarn and needle combination.
CAST ON
I used my Chiaogoo US 4 2″ needles from my mini set on an 8″ cable to cast on the required stitches +1 extra stitch. I used the extra stitch to help me join in the round without having a gap.
The ribbed collar is folded over and joined together. I really liked that it was knit together vs sewing by hand afterward. During this row, I switched to a 14″ cable and the 3″ US 4 minis so I had a little more room to navigate the pick up stitch. I love how the interchangeable needles set works with the mini set; you can mix and match to almost any combination you need.
YOKE
Once the collar was complete, I switched to my US 6 needles from my original 4″ Chiaogoo needle set. The needles and the cables are all interchangeable between the mini set and the original set.
I slid each stitch around, purl-wise so that I could place the stitch markers around the raglan stitches. I really liked how the BOR was in the back center vs one of the raglan markers.
Neck Shaping
Working the German short rows was fine for me. I watched the video referenced in the pattern. I also read through the section in the pattern on “About raglan increases” to understand the differences between M1L and M1R on RS vs WS.
Increases
I continued to work the raglan increases and tracking my progress. As the number of stitches increased, I swapped my needles to a 22″ cable.
DIVIDE FOR SLEEVES + BODY
I used my US 6 3″ mini needles on an 8″ cable to pass the sleeve stitches over. With the sleeve stitches divided, I secured the 8″ cable with a safety pin to keep them on hold.
I continued knitting through the body stitches with my 22″ cable. When casting on stitches under the arms, I cast on one additional stitch again to then slip it over the next stitch and secure the round join. (Just like I did with the cast on).
I wanted my sweater have a shorter ribbing as well as to be a bit cropped overall. So I knit to the length I thought would be good based on my swatch gauge. Then I completed the double knitting set-up rows and the Italian bind off. This video is really helpful for showing the Italian bind off technique:
CROPPED MODIFICATION?
Once I was done with the bind off, I thought the sweater looked small. I wanted the sweater a bit cropped, but was this a sweater for my niece? I did a try-on and it seemed way smaller than I would like. I knew it would grow with blocking though, so I just trusted that it would be okay.
SLEEVES
Since the sleeve circumference is small, I used my 2″ mini needles on the 8″ cable that was already holding the live stitches. I picked up the stitches as called for in the pattern and knit a few rows.
Holes
I was disappointed with the holes on either side of the pick up, so I ripped back and tried again. This time I picked up two additional stitches on either side of the cast on stitches, and then worked decreases on the next two rounds to get my stitch count back.
But this method left many gaps and was also extra bulky from the decreasing. I ripped it back and started again.
Even though there were holes, the pick up and everything was a lot smoother when I followed the pattern. So this time, I left a really long tail and picked up and knit as written. Then before I got too far along, I used the long tail to seam up the gaps. I think it looks perfect!
Length + Bind Off
I worked the decreases as written and then worked a few more rounds straight stockinette until I got to 13″ per the pattern.
The sleeve is meant to have a lot of ribbing, but I wanted the cuffs to match the body hem. So I adjusted to have more stockinette and less ribbing while keeping the sleeve the overall length.
BLOCKING
I soaked my sweater in cool water with soap for ~15-20 minutes. I knew I would need to be more aggressive with blocking and I wanted every fiber to be extra pliable. While my sweater was soaking, I set up my blocking mats and got a beach towel ready.
I gently squeezed the water from the sweater, and then laid it out on the towel. I rolled up the sweater to help get out the excess water and then I laid it out on the blocking mats to start pinning.
My sweater was already feeling really dry and I felt I needed to work quickly to pin it in place. I started from the bottom and pinned the center with my knit blockers. Then I measured out from the center to stretch to the width I wanted.
I then pinned up the sides of the sweater while stretching vertically to get the length I needed. I didn’t want to warp the collar ribbing, so I used a knit blocker to secure the front and back of the sweater without pulling the collar. I smoothed out and pinned the sleeves at the cuff, and then left it to dry.
TOO SHORT + RE-KNIT FOR MORE LENGTH
Once the sweater was dry, I tried it on. It looked….fine. But it was more cropped than I wanted and I didn’t knit this sweater to not have it be exactly what I wanted. I ripped back the hem ribbing and knit that length back in stockinette.
Then I added new yarn and knit a couple of rounds before re-knitting the ribbing and bind-off as before.
I soaked and blocked only the bottom of the sweater to even out these new stitches and get the same definition as the rest of the sweater. I didn’t want to re-block the whole sweater again, but after seeing how it didn’t look uniform, I ended up re-blocking the entire sweater again.
MY MONDAY SWEATER
I am happy with my Monday Sweater. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow. I guess had issues with my gauge — I was able to block aggressively to get gauge required in the pattern, but I think I did something wrong? because I have a full ball of each merino and mohair untouched. I think I should have tested gauge with a larger needle size and maybe I wouldn’t have needed to block so aggressively. I’m not sure what happened there.
Regardless of gauge issues, I am happy with the drape and feel of my Monday sweater fabric. It’s so soft and cozy, but light. It is warmer than I expected though, but I think it’ll be perfect for travel. The length is great for me now and I’m happy I went back and made the adjustment. In the end, my sweater measures exactly as described in the pattern and I’m happy with the size.
I loved knitting this simple stockinette raglan and I will definitely make another Monday Sweater. Check out my Ravelry to see my other projects or what I’m working on next!
