Untitled Document

Poncho shawl

For any yarn, any stitch, hand or machine knit! Even Crochet!

It's as easy as making a big scarf, baby blanket, or pillow.

by: Natalie Langkilde http://www.nataliesknitting.com

Choose a stretchy fabric for best drape. Consider beads if you like! Make it as easy or hard as you want! Wouldnt' this be a good wheelchair poncho? Or dress up poncho/shawl? It's good for me, who keeps those arms moving all day. Wear the point in front, in back, or on the side.

Make one panel measuring 16" X 50-55 inches. 55" is very drapey and one size fits all. 16" will be about elbow legnth in front, you can shorten this to your preference.

Note: If you use acrylic and want to "kill" it, you may want to do it shorter in both dimensions. I left mine bouncy and "live". Another one I made I "killed" and in lacey acrylic it grew a lot! Be aware of how your finished poncho will behave if you want to steam it flat, and adjust gauge for finished results!

Hand Knit: pick a stitch and yarn, knit a swatch and get your gauge per inch for stitches and rows, in that stitch and yarn. Cast on enough to span 16 inches wide (st part in the stitches per inch). Knit the panel enough rows to get the 50-55 inches. Cast off loosely. Use diagram above to seam up, seaming directions are below in "Sewing Up".

Machine knit: Get gauge from your swatch in chosen yarn, and stitch pattern.

I used a tuck lace pattern similar to one in Stitch World that looks like alternating peacock eyes, Standard Gauge Machine on T 10 (loose, stretchy, and airy), one strand 2/24 acrylic got my gauge of 101 st to 570 rows for a 16" X 55" panel.

I casted on with e-wrap for stretch. Knit stockinette on every needle for 2 rows, did the tuck lace enough rows, then again (on every needle) 3 rows stockinette st. The stockinette rows gave me something to seam it together by. When casting off I used backs stitch bind off for stretchiness. You don't have to. Use diagram above when seaming up.

Sewing Up: Lay panel wrong side up as in the diagram above. Take the entire legnth of A-B (see diagram) and pull over to E-D, as you pull it will be crossing the fabric so that wrong sides are facing each other. Sew the entire legnth of A-B to the legnth of E-D. I used Mattress stitch. This leaves an opening for the head, and joins the panel to make a point out of corner C.

Fringe: I put on a lavish 6-10 inch fringe. You decide. Hand knot, or by machine do the wooly worm at a lower tension than your main tension, with the fringe needle out at needle #40 to #60 for standard gauge machine, or whatever gives you the length fringe you want. I made 6-10 passes for the "lump" part. The more you do the less like a "lump" it is, and more like a lace detail. You can knot the fringes coming off each "lump" if you like. I think it may be stable enough without, but you can do this to be "safe".

You can even divide the fringes each in half, then knot them to their neighbors 2 inches down, then do it again for "diamond" shape tied fringe. Use a ruler for consistency. You can only do one row of diamonds with 6 inches of fringe. You can do 2 rows, but the resulting hanging fringe will be short, and I think it should hang well. If you want any size at all to those diamonds! So give it a try on a legnth of yarn if you are interested in this.

--------