Roz says:
I used a yarn that could stand some steam because it curled
pretty badly when I finished it. I know the fringe controlled
a lot of the curl but steaming took care of the rest. It took
just about a pound of yarn and the yarn I used is about 2000 yds
per lb (measured on the McMorran Yarn Balance). It was a mohair/acrylic
blend mill end from WEbs. My idea was to make this out of the
mill end yarn and then get some "good" yarn to make
my "real" poncho. (I may not make another poncho, I
love this one).
I'm 5'3" If you're taller than me you might want to make it longer. If you are going to wear this around the house you might want it shorter.
The generator asks:
What's your gauge: put in your gauge swatch info.
How often do you want to decrease?: I put in that I wanted to decrease 1 stitch every 4 rows.
4 times the width of the top of the trapezoid: All you
have to put in here is the neck width I put 19 inches (which gave
me a width of 4.7 inches wide each of the 4 pieces. (That made
the back depth of 1.5, front neck width 8.886).
Approximate shoulder width: I measure 15" shoulder
to shoulder but when I knitted the poncho it was too narrow at
the shoulders to wear anything under it. (dummy me, that's what
you'd put for a sweater but you might want to wear that sweater
under this poncho) So I went back and put 17 and that number worked
great. If I was going to wear something even heavier under it
I'd go even wider. Remember, the poncho will grown a little vertically
but might actually get a little narrower as you wear it and gravity
pulls it down. This figure affects the width all the way around
the shoulders and upper arms and you want room to move under
there. Measure yourself shoulder to shoulder but also measure
around your upper arms. That's only a couple inches below shoulder--will
it fit?
Length along back diagonal seam: I wanted it fingertip length including the fringe. (remember, the diagonal will be just a little longer than the straight line--mine is 1" longer). I put 28 inches figuring it would drop some with the weight of all that fabric. I just now measured it and it has dropped 1 inch since I blocked it and left it hanging overnight. The straight seam is 28" now. But how much it stretches depends on your yarn, how tight you knit it and what fringe, if any, you put on it.
Shorten center front length: I put in 2.105 after fiddling around with that figure. I wanted front neck depth to be 3.5 or close, so I kept inputting figures until it ended up 3.6559 (close enough for me).
That's it! The calculator will do it's thing and give you a pattern that is very, very simple to use. Basically you cast on a certain number of stitches and decrease 1 every 4 rows on each side until you get to the shoulders and neck.
BTW, for decreases, I wanted cables up my seams but decided since this was a "test" poncho I'd forget the cables and I ended up doing a 5 stitch full fashion decrease (move the end 5 stitches in 1 stitch each side). If you look through some of your raglan books you'll find some fancy decreases that will look great on a poncho.
For the neck finishing, I did this: I Bound off all
neck stitches because I figured if I left open stitches the weight
of the fabric would be pulling the neck down. I
sewed 3 seams and left the front seam open. I laid the neck up
against the needle bed to measure the width I'd need for a neckband
and then laid the poncho aside.
Collar: I did a ribber cast on and knitted 120 rows fisherman rib, starting at tension 8/4 II (ribber refused to knit any looser than 4 without dropping stitches). First 50 rows 8/4, remaining rows 7/4. Then I put the ribber on H and transferred a stitch to every empty needle for a full needle rib. I knitted circular at tension 7/7 II for 6 rows. Took the neck off circular on waste yarn. Then I hung the poncho back on the same needles, right side facing me. Hung one side of the circular rows in the latches and pulled them through. Hung the other side of the circular band in the latches and pulled them through and bound off around 2 gate pegs.
This is a standard cut and sew collar/neckband. Since I had bound off all my stitches, I wanted the little facing on both sides, I think it looks nicer and it's so easy to do.
NOTE: The ribber cast on in this instance has to be very loose. I ended up taking the whole thing off the first time so that I could do a looser cast on. the cast on I used was one that Beverly Kanvik gave us years ago on Prodigy. Here's how you do it:
1. Zig-zag cast on to the left. Insert cast on comb and weights, pull ribber needles into hold and set ribber carriage to hold. Knit to the right.
2. Put hold levers back on ribber carriage and push in the left
part button on main carriage. Knit across to the left.
3. Put part button back to plain knitting and knit 1 row to the
right. Continue knitting your rib and after knitting is complete,
take the loop of yarn opposite the end of the beginning yarn and
carefully pull through the cast on loops at the beginning of the
ribbing. This is difficult with fuzzy yarn so I used a tapestry
needle and carefully pulled that thread through. It's worth the
difficulty, it makes a really, really nice elastic edge.
Fringe: I used the Wooly Worm fringe going from needles -21 to +21 and made absolutely sure that I went into every stitch. When I finished I carefully cut the +21, 22, 23 stitches as close to their edge as I could. You could leave the loops but I was afraid they would catch on things.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me, or ask Lucia, she was a port3280@bellsouth.net great help to me when I was trying to figure out what I wanted and what the calculator was asking me. Her email address is lucia@thedietdiary.com
If you have something special you want to knit and you can't figure out how, ask Lucia to help you. I have no doubt she'll come up with a calculator for you like she did for me. I can't thank her enough.
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Copyright © Roz Porter 2004
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