On the Needles Friday Oct 2, 2015

For some crazy reason, I have been looking at poncho patterns for ages, and wanting to try one.  Two things stopped me: 1- I was not sure I wouldn't look like a lunatic in a poncho and 2-most poncho patterns have miles and miles of knitting, which I was not willing to do in case I looked like a lunatic! I kept seeing photos of ponchos, and I thought I would end up sewing one to try the shape on me.  Then Julie gave me a knitting machine! I can knit miles in a day.  So I decided to make my poncho fantasies come true.

I found some sample poncho knitting patterns, and the ones that seemed the most doable to me were made from 2 long rectangles.  Julie had also given me cones of yarn passed on from the machine's original owner, so I chose this cone of burgundy wool/silk blend in laceweight.  I originally thought I would add some lace patterning to the body of the poncho, but the lace carriage of the machine kept breaking the yarn, so I kept it simple instead.  These rectangles ended up being over 200,000 stitches and took me only a few days to knit.  I seamed them together, and I think I will like wearing this!

The thing about pieces that are all stockinette like this, they want to roll up something fierce.  To remedy this issue, I decided to use the yarn doubled and knit edgings onto the poncho.  So far I knit a garter stitch edge onto the neckline.

Now I am working on a lace border on the bottom, based on a stitch pattern called fan shell I found in my Barbara Walker  book, "A Treasury of Knitting Patterns".

I am so glad to have this additional practice on the knitting machine.  I tried a new way to bind off that I found in the instruction book, and this new way leads to way less trouble with dropped stitches.  This makes me really happy.

Hopefully I will get some modelled photos of the poncho before next Friday.  Linking up with Judy at Patchwork Times for on the needles Friday!