May 31, 2025

Nicole's Onling Rikke Sweater Notes:

About a month ago I purchased a the pattern and yarn for the Onling Rikke Sweater that kept showing up in my FaceBook feed. I thought, oh this is a standard knit in the round, top down sweater. No problem! I bought some yarn and made my swatch. All seemed well.

I did the Italian cast on, 112 sts, knit according to the instructions and joined in the round. Began the Rib Stitch pattern (for the shorter neckline, which is one eyelet long, ie rounds 5-10 and then 1-6).

Time to add the markers for the raglan sleeves - this is where it all went sideways. Nothing lined up as described in the pattern.

The instructions are not very clear. In fact, while surfing FaceBook I read the comment from quite a few people that they had purchased the pattern and after looking at it decided it was beyond what they could accomplish. Many said it was too confusing. I had just spent the evening splitting atoms with my brain trying to unravel the mystery this pattern was and thought I had it figured out. I believe there was something that got lost in translation but the pattern is not well organized AND it is rather complicated but once you break it down and understand what's below I hope you will give it a try.

This is my honest attempt to be helpful since I struggled so hard to understand how to knit this sweater. I've been knitting for almost 10 years now and am not a beginner but this IN NO WAY is a guarentee that any of this is going to work out. So wait for/read to the end to see how it all turns out!

***Some people are solving the problem by not doing the short rows to lengthen the back of the sweater (which helps to drop the front neckline down.) You can look for these notes on other Ravelers notes on the project. I am opting to try and knit as the designer intended.

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Returning to where it went sideways with the Raglan Markers:

In the instructions you knit the raglan, place marker, knit the back 23 sts, (raglan) knit the 23 sleeve stitches, (raglan) knit 39 stitches for the front (raglan) then 23 stitches for the other sleeve bringing you back to the BOR....

Therefore there is a mistake in the schematic on the next page where they have labeled the BOR...

It should be at the right side of the mid-back.

Once I felt I was correct and had fixed that in my mind, I moved to the next page and started reading the notes for the short rows.... it all went sideways AGAIN!

I finally decided to read ahead into the next page before a note that was in a little box on it made things click in my head!

Basically, you will simulaneously-

Be Knitting Short Rows across the back into the sleeves on both sides (ending two extra short rows into the front on each side of the front raglan)
Doing everything in the RIB STITCH PATTERN ROUNDS 1-10 and
ALWAYS Increasing on each side of raglan with M1R, K1, M1L ONLY ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF YOUR WORK and
The Raglan Increases should be knit or purled in keeping with the rib stitch pattern on the following passes.

In the directions after the notes where it says "Short rows continued"

*** Make sure you make your first increase right before you slip the new marked BOR and continue with the raglan marker to begin the first short row. This keeps the increases (circled and numbered on the schematic above) happening in the proper order so you can finish and break off where the pattern instucts.

That 1st row is actually Round 8 in the RIB STITCH PATTERN since we ended on 7 earlier, which makes the third row round 10 in the rib stitch pattern and makes perfect sense about the holes being worked.

I continued on my page numbering all the rows in pattern sequence ending on the 20th row which is the 7th round in the rib stitch pattern.

Upon completing all the short rows you will end up with (going around from the BOR Marker):

BOR/raglan, 43 sts on the back, (raglan) 35 stitches on the sleeve (raglan) 43 stitches on the front (raglan) 35 stitches on the other sleeve and returning to BOR.

Make sure that even during the short rows, when you are on the right side of a row that would be 10 in the rib stitch pattern ( which is labeled row 3 and 13 on the pattern) that you ALWAYS do the SKP at EVERY knit three sequence unless it is directly in a spot where you are doing a wrap and turn (or a german short row) even near the corners of each raglan.

June 11, 2025

I am now through the short rows and almost complete on the increase rounds of the yoke. Should be dividing for the sleeves very shortly. This part is a bit boring to be honest - but after all the atom splitting I did with my mind to deciper the first part, it's a welcome break.

June 12, 2025

I have separated for the sleeves and continued to knit the body. I have cast on the required 11 stitches under the arm - making them provisional cast on with a purlstring holding the provisional cast on and the sleeve stitches on both sleeves as I continued to knit the body. I am almost out of this skein of yarn. As soon as it is done, I will go back to the sleeves and begin there. I am hoping the purlstring provisional will allow me to match up my ribbing pattern easily instead of struggling to pick up stitches.

June 14, 2024

So the provisional cast on under the arms worked out. The original pattern called for picking up less stitches and going back and sewing up the holes. I personally don't like my armhole too snug.

So I had 11 stitches from my provisional cast on.

I picked up a corner stitch on each side between the sleeve stitches and the underarm cast on - they were purl stitches that were in keeping with the rib stitch pattern.

Then I charted the next 36 rows in the rib stitch pattern (the amount of rows I had to decrease to 80 in the original pattern) to plan where I wanted my decreases to fall.

I ended with the center being a knit 1 - so the last decrease was a center double decrease.

I am happy with how the first sleeve looks and will continue on with the second in the same manner.

June 18th

I finished the second sleeve. I am using the italian /tubular cast off as called for in the instructions. I tried a regular bind off and then a stretchy bind off first, but I don't like how the edges looked finished, so sewn bind off it is. Working on the body now. Below is a picture of the difference between the tubular and stretchy bind off... left is Italian/Tubular, right is Jeny's stretchy bind off.