Pullover in Schachenmayr Extra Soft Merino Cotton - 2018

Schachenmayr Extra Soft Merino Cotton Raglan Pullover – Free Knitting Pattern (2018)

This free downloadable PDF knitting pattern from Schachenmayr provides instructions for a classic raglan pullover with a textured stitch pattern, designed in five sizes and worked in the brand's own Extra Soft Merino Cotton yarn. The pattern was released in 2018 as a complimentary design (Gratisanleitung) and is suitable for knitters who are comfortable with shaping techniques and reading multi-size instructions separated by hyphens.

What Is Being Made

The project is a fitted raglan-style pullover sweater (Raglanpulli) featuring a structured stitch panel across the body. The garment is shaped at the waist with both decreases and increases to create a tailored silhouette, and the construction includes a ribbed hem, a textured body section, and classic raglan sleeve shaping. The pattern is written in German and covers five sizes, with stitch counts ranging from 85 to 129 stitches at the narrowest waist point and 93 to 129 stitches at the full body width.

Materials Required

• Yarn: Schachenmayr select Extra Soft Merino Cotton – a DK weight blend of 70% virgin wool (Schurwolle) and 30% cotton, with an approximate yardage of 130 metres per 50 g ball. The pattern calls for 350–550 g in White (colour 05603), depending on size.
• Needles: Milward straight knitting needles in sizes 3–3.5 mm (for the ribbed cuffs and hems) and sizes 3.5–4 mm (for the main body and textured sections), plus a 40 cm circular needle in size 3–3.5 mm for finishing details such as the neckband.

Tension / Gauge

The pattern specifies a tension of 22 stitches and 30 rows to 10 cm × 10 cm, measured over both stockinette (glatt rechts) and the textured stitch pattern using the larger needle size (3.5–4 mm). Achieving the correct gauge is important for accurate waist shaping and overall fit across all five sizes.

Techniques Used

• Raglan shaping – the defining construction method of this pullover, where sleeve and body pieces are joined and decreased along diagonal raglan lines to form the yoke without a traditional set-in sleeve seam.
• Waist shaping with decreases and increases – the back piece is shaped by working single decreases on both sides at 5 cm above the ribbing (once, then every 4th row three times), followed by increases beginning at 14 cm above the ribbing (once, then every 8th row three times), creating a fitted, hourglass-shaped torso.
• Paired decreases in right-side and wrong-side rows – on right-side rows (Hinreihen), decreases are worked using a slip-knit-pass-slipped-stitch-over (Überzug) method at the beginning and a k2tog at the end; on wrong-side rows (Rückreihen), corresponding paired purl decreases are worked through the back loop to maintain symmetry.
• Ribbing (Bündchenmuster) – a 6 cm rib border is worked on smaller needles at the cast-on edge, beginning with a specific sequence of knit and purl stitches to establish the rib pattern correctly from the first wrong-side row.
• Textured stitch pattern (Strukturmuster) – introduced at 25 cm above the ribbing, the pattern is worked over a 6-stitch repeat (Rapport), repeated across the row according to size (15 to 21 repeats depending on the size being knitted), and spans 31 rows before returning to plain stockinette.
• Stitch distribution in the first row – after the ribbing, stitches are redistributed by working a small number of k2tog decreases (1–3 depending on size) evenly across the first row to adjust the stitch count before beginning the main body.

Stitches Used