An Easy, Cozy Raglan: Cinnabar Sweater Pattern Review

One of the most important things about the Cinnabar Sweater is that there are TWO versions. I saw the cropped, bell sleeve version first, which was not for me. But as tester photos started to pop up I found out there was another way the pattern could be made – full length with fitted sleeves! Because of the long queue I had of knit items, it would be awhile before I could start it, after I had gotten the pattern from Maven Crafted, so it got slotted in as an early 2021 project, going on my (as yet) unofficial Make 9.

The other reason it got on my Make 9 list is because I had suitable yarn for it. I’m still pretty much on a yarn fast, so especially for sweaters, I pretty much have to have the yarn or it will have to wait until I find yarn I want for it I can put on a birthday or Christmas wishlist. But quite awhile ago I had purchased a pretty large quantity of Lion Brand Feels Like Butta (affiliate link) and had changed my mind on what I wanted to make with this Teal colour. And it really is a gorgeous colour.

The Cinnabar Sweater is knit as a top-down raglan. I think raglans are my favourite sweater construction to knit, because I find the “seam” created by the increases really, really satisfying. And because they are in such a set place I think it’s also a little easier to check your work, and make sure you actually did your increases when and where you are supposed to without having to count all the stitches whenever you want to check.

I did make a few modifications to the pattern in both the body and the sleeves. My first modification didn’t change the look of the finished sweater, it’s just that I absolutely refuse to do short rows with wrap and turns, I always substitute German short rows.

For modifications that did change the look and fit, first of all I figured I would do some light waist shaping. There are directions for waist shaping in the pattern, especially for the cropped version of the sweater. I started my decreases for the waist shaping 2 pattern repeats after it’s directed in the pattern for the cropped version of the sweater. I then only did one “set” of repeats, which meant I only decreased 6 stitches. To get a bit of an hourglass shape, I did reverse the shaping as well, so 7 pattern repeats after finishing the decreases section I increased, in the same manner as the decreases, just with M1R and M1L in place of the k2tog and ssk, and I only increased 4 stitches, didn’t go all the way back to the original number of stitches.

My overall length is a few inches greater than is in the pattern as well, I started the bottom ribbing once my sweater was 15″ from the armpit, and then I did 2″ of ribbing. Then of course I substituted my favourite tubular bind off for a regular bind off. The look and little bit of extra stretch you get from that bind off just can’t be beat, and despite the little bit of extra time I will always chose to do it when binding off ribbing.

For the sleeves I picked up a few extra stitches for my size, including an extra stitch in the “corner” between the stitches that were on hold for the sleeve, and the cast on stitches for the body. Then I decreased them, at that “corner” in the next round by doing a k2tog. For the decreases written in the pattern, after 4 pattern repeats I skipped 2 decreases in a row, and then resumed the decreases, doing not quite as many so that I ended up with 2 more stitches in the cuff than were in the pattern. I also ended up using 4 mm needles, instead of 4.5 mm needles, for the cuff because I am very committed to only using circular needles for sleeves to reduce laddering (especially important with synthetic yarns), and I don’t have 9″ 4.5 mm needles.

Let’s talk a little bit more about this yarn. It is extremely soft, Feels Like Butta really lives up to its name. It has a sort of chainette construction to it so it’s quite light. But because it is polyester I find it a little different to work with. As a synthetic fiber, I find there is no stretch to the fiber as your knitting with it and I always notice this because my hands and forearms will get sore and tired much faster when working with most synthetic yarns.

While I have wet blocked acrylic yarns a number of times and have found it can make a difference in the fabric, I have not blocked my Cinnabar. I’m not sure how much of a difference there would be between acrylic and polyester for blocking, but when I’ve knit with Feels Like Butta (I also made my Droplets sweater in it), it’s just felt so good on without a block, I didn’t think it was necessary here either! I will pay some attention to it when I wash it the first time, but it won’t be getting the same formal block that most of my garments get.

Even with it being a little harder on my hands/forearms because of the yarn, this sweater knit up extremely fast! I was even able to make a sleeve in a day, with some focus, but that is a really short trip to sleeve island! (Check out the reel of one of the sleeves growing in one day here). And if you’ve taken a look at #CinnabarSweater on Instagram, you’ll know that everyone’s sweater turns out so beautifully and looks so good on them, no matter which version they choose!