Metlivi Blog

How to Adjust Raglan Shaping to Reduce Excess Fabric Under the Arms

To reduce excess fabric under the arms of a top-down raglan sweater, first identify whether the surplus comes from a deep yoke, oversized sleeves or a wide underarm cast-on. Then adjust that part of the construction while checking the finished stitch counts. Simply stopping all raglan increases early changes both sleeve and body width.

This guide focuses on modifying a knitted top-down raglan before committing to the body and sleeves. The key is to plan depth and circumference separately: designer Carol Feller demonstrates how changing the relative frequency of body and sleeve increases can correct proportions that a standard raglan increase schedule does not accommodate. Carol Feller’s raglan construction guide

October 28, 20267 min readBy Metlivi Editorial Team

Open Products Back to blog

Section 1

Identify Which Part of the Underarm Has Excess Fabric

Examine the sweater with its neckline sitting where you intend it to sit. Compare three dimensions with the pattern schematic and, ideally, a knitted sweater whose fit you like: vertical armhole depth, body circumference and upper-sleeve circumference. Measure armhole depth vertically rather than along the sloping raglan line; the Knitting & Crochet Guild explicitly distinguishes these measurements. Knitting & Crochet Guild: Raglan Sizing

Use the following as a diagnostic starting point, then confirm it with measurements. These are construction-based clues, not a diagnosis from folds alone.

What you observe	What to check first	Adjustment to investigate
The sleeve divide sits lower than intended, with fabric hanging beneath it	Vertical armhole depth	Shorten the yoke while preserving required width
The body width looks right, but the upper sleeves are fuller than intended	Sleeve stitch count, including underarm pickups	Work fewer sleeve increases
Both body and sleeves are wider than planned	Gauge and total stitch counts	Recalculate dimensions before altering the shaping
The underarm bridge is wider than intended	Underarm cast-on count	Reduce it only after checking its contribution to both circumferences
Small openings appear at the join, without broad folds	Pickup technique and temporary extra stitches	Correct the join and return to the planned sleeve count

Do not treat every fold as an error. Decide how much fullness you want to retain, then compare the actual garment dimensions with that target. Celine Feyten’s design guidance starts with separate targets for body circumference, upper-sleeve circumference and yoke depth rather than assuming one increase schedule will satisfy all three. Fit Essentials: Nailing Key Fit Points in Top-Down Raglans

Section 2

Check Blocked Gauge Before Rewriting the Raglan

Make or remeasure a swatch in the garment’s stitch pattern. For a sweater worked in the round, use an in-the-round swatch; wash and block it as you intend to treat the sweater. Tin Can Knits recommends this process before calculating finished dimensions. Record both stitches and rounds per inch. Tin Can Knits: Off Gauge Guidance

Stitch gauge determines width; round gauge determines the depth produced by a given number of rounds. For an illustrative example, 56 rounds measure 7 inches at eight rounds per inch, but 8 inches at seven rounds per inch. Following the same round count can therefore produce an extra inch of yoke depth even when the stitch count is correct.

Write down your measured gauge alongside the pattern gauge. If they differ, calculate the dimensions your actual stitches and rounds produce before deciding that the increase schedule itself needs changing.

Section 3

Shorten a Deep Yoke Without Accidentally Narrowing the Sweater

Check how the pattern defines yoke depth. A measurement taken from the back neckline may not equal the full vertical shoulder-to-underarm measurement. Kristen TenDyke explains that the sleeve stitches cast on at the neckline contribute to the depth above the raglan shaping: in her construction example, half the sleeve cast-on width is added to the shaping depth. Keep those neckline sleeve stitches distinct from the stitches cast on later beneath each arm. Kristen TenDyke’s top-down raglan design tutorial

If the yoke contains plain rounds after all necessary increases are complete, those rounds are the first place to investigate shortening it. Elizabeth Smith’s underarm-divide tutorial explicitly uses additional plain stockinette rows to deepen a yoke without adding stitches. Removing some of that optional depth follows the same construction logic, provided the revised divide still reaches your intended position. Elizabeth Smith: Underarm Divide and Body

If increases continue all the way to the divide, separating earlier also removes width. Count the missing increases before proceeding. You may need to distribute them over fewer rounds or redesign the body and sleeve schedules separately. TenDyke’s tutorial includes faster increase sections and body-only or sleeve-only shaping, demonstrating why every-other-round shaping is a starting structure rather than a universal requirement. Top-down raglan shaping calculations

Section 4

Reduce Sleeve Increases When the Body Width Is Already Right

A conventional full raglan increase round adds eight stitches: two to the front, two to the back and two to each sleeve. To reduce sleeve growth while retaining body growth, work the increases that belong to the front and back while omitting those that belong to the sleeves. Feller describes alternating full increase rows with body-only increase rows to improve sleeve proportions. Raglan increase rates explained by Carol Feller

Mark the four sections clearly before rewriting any rounds. A body-only increase round adds four stitches overall; a full increase round adds eight. Preserve the pattern’s decorative raglan stitches and establish which section receives them at the divide. Changing an increase from one side of a raglan line to the other changes which section grows.

Use this method when sleeve circumference is excessive but body circumference and depth are suitable. Omitting sleeve increases does not shorten the yoke: it changes width at the same round count. If depth is also excessive, solve that dimension separately.

Section 5

Calculate Underarm Stitches as Part of Both Circumferences

The underarm cast-on contributes to the body when the sleeves are separated, and its edge supplies stitches when each sleeve is resumed. Consequently, reducing this count changes both finished circumferences. Feyten’s calculation method subtracts the underarm allowance from the target body and sleeve counts before determining how many raglan increases are needed. Underarm allowances in raglan calculations

For a simple symmetrical pullover, use these bookkeeping equations. Let F and B be the front and back counts immediately before division, S the held count for one sleeve, and U the stitches cast on at each underarm. Include any raglan-line stitches in the section that receives them.

Body stitches after division = F + B + 2U.
Sleeve stitches after pickup = S + U, before temporary corner pickups.
Target body stitches before division = desired body circumference × stitch gauge − 2U.
Target held stitches per sleeve = desired sleeve circumference × stitch gauge − U.

For example, at five stitches per inch, reducing each underarm cast-on from ten stitches to six removes eight stitches, or 1.6 inches, from the body circumference. It also removes four stitches, or 0.8 inches, from each sleeve circumference. This illustrative calculation shows why a smaller underarm cast-on needs a full count check rather than an isolated edit.

Section 6

Worked Example: Keep Body Width and Reduce Sleeve Fullness

Suppose a plain stockinette raglan has the intended yoke depth and body width, but you want each upper sleeve 1.6 inches narrower. The following numbers are illustrative, not instructions for a particular pattern.

Measurement or count	Original plan	Revised target
Blocked stitch gauge	5 stitches per inch	Unchanged
Front stitches before division	100	100
Back stitches before division	100	100
Held stitches per sleeve	72	64
Cast-on stitches per underarm	10	10
Body after division	220 stitches / 44 inches	Unchanged
Each sleeve after pickup	82 stitches / 16.4 inches	74 stitches / 14.8 inches

Each sleeve needs eight fewer stitches. Because a full raglan increase round adds two stitches to each sleeve, replace four planned full increase rounds with body-only increase rounds. Keep the original total number of rounds and the underarm cast-on count.

The arithmetic is: 72 − (4 × 2) = 64 held stitches per sleeve, then 64 + 10 = 74 stitches after pickup. Front and back counts stay unchanged because their increases still occur. Spread the four substitutions through the relevant shaping section rather than treating their placement as an afterthought; record every revised section count.

Afterward, recalculate the sleeve taper from 74 stitches to the intended cuff count. Repeating the original number of sleeve decreases would remove eight more stitches than the revised sleeve plan allows.

Section 7

Test the Revised Divide and Finish the Join Accurately

Before knitting substantial body or sleeve length, place the sleeve stitches on holders and work the planned underarm cast-ons. Check the resulting depth and widths together. Record the round count, each section’s stitch count and the underarm allowance so that any further revision changes a known quantity.

When starting a sleeve, distinguish temporary corner pickups from its intended circumference. Tin Can Knits demonstrates picking up one extra stitch at each underarm corner, then decreasing those two extras on the next round. Those stitches improve the join; they are not permanent additions to sleeve width. Tin Can Knits: Beginning a Top–Down Sleeve

If the sweater is already finished and the surplus originates in the yoke, additional decreases below the join only narrow the fabric beneath that point. They do not change the yoke’s existing depth or stitch count. For the adjustments described here, return to the affected shaping section and reknit it using the revised counts.

Keep the successful revision with your pattern notes: blocked gauge, vertical depth, increase schedule, held sleeve counts and underarm cast-on. That combination gives you a repeatable construction plan and makes it easier to preserve the fullness you enjoy while removing the surplus you identified.

Section 8