RE: Top-down cardigan experiment - progress so far :)
One problem I often have with top-down constructions is, that I often miscalculate the width of the sleeves... perhaps this maybe your "too much stuff under the arms". Mostly my sleeves and with this the sleeve opening are too wide. But I have no idea why this so often happens.
With the joining under the armpit... this problem does not occur in my sweaters, but I have often read about it. A hole at this point seems to be a common problem.
https://thebrownstitch.com/2010/06/11/the-great-underarm-divide-part-ii/
But I am not sure if this is the problem you mean.
How did you close the underarm? I normally cast on 4 up to 10 stitches and later pick up even more stitches for the sleeves. Meaning, if I casted on 4 stitches for the underarm join, I pick up about 8 stitches in this area for the sleeves. (Perhaps this is also written in the above link, I am not sure, I only remembered the text, but I did not read it again :-DD)
Sorry, I am writing a bit confuse...
The longer cable is perfect for trying on. I mostly use addi click and these needles have a connector to elongate the cables. I also put the sleeve stitches on cables instead of scrap yarn, so that I later only must click on the needles (I am soooo lazy :-DD)
Mmm, it just looks like there is too much fabric bunched up under the arms. I found this picture on ravelry which seems quite generous to me under the arms, so maybe it is okay:
I didn't add any stitches between the front and back, it seemed to fit quite well anyway. Maybe I could use less stitches to start and add some underarm ones if needed next time. Let's see :)
I'm pleased with it so far, it looks lovely :)
I like the pattern in the picture, it seems to have solved the problem of the square neck line.
Yes, the blue cardigan is lovely (the variegated wool is beautiful) And with the neckline... The more advanced raglan patterns start with a very small stitch count for the fronts and increase the fronts in a certain ratio to the four raglan increases. Often at the half way of the yoke there are in addition to the front increases stitches casted on for the fronts to create a more rounded neckline (obviously not for the blue cardigan)
I am so curious how your cardigan will look in the end <3 <3
(and please be lenient, if I wrote things you already knew)