Monday 5 January 2015

PpppppPoncho x



Ok, ok it's not chocolate but it is a lovely warm, colourful and easy to crochet poncho reveal moment. Will that do?

Ok there may be chocolate somewhere in the post.

I first saw this particular pattern on Lucy at Attic 24s blog when I doing my reading of blogs one day. She described in great detail how she had planned and made colour decisions for her version of the Poncho. Spurred on by the beautiful colours, I managed to snag myself a copy of ''Simply Crochet'' issue number 25.

 The poncho is in the bottom lefthand corner 

I love crochet and knitting but this is my first make for me not for a gift so I did spend quite alot of time planning the colours I wanted to use. Like Lucy, I didn't want to use the cream shade for my poncho so I decided to go with her choice of grey but it's got a bit of blue in it so it is a lovely shade for the main colour. I then made a list of the colours I wanted to use and did what Lucy suggested and snipped a little of each wool shade and make a colour chart so I knew which shade would come next. I bought my wool from Wool Warehouse who delivered extremely quickly and all the wool balls were in a beautiful bag so I could store them and my crochet together.


The wool is by Drops and called Nepal and has a 65% wool and 35% Alpaca mix in an aran weight so it's lovely and warm. I chose shades in blues, pink, purples, pistachio, orange and the main grey. It also has a cowl neck but it's not a tight neck and the woll isn't itchy which I do find when working with some yarns.



I began crocheting and I have to say that the wool is perfect for crocheting with and the shades were very close to the images on the website. You may need to watch this video to learn how to do the crochet ribbing design. I'd never seen this stitch before but it's very easy to work. I did about 4 extra rows of treble crochets because I wanted my Poncho longer.

I had decided early on that I wasn't going to do the fringing on the bottom so I spent quite alot of time trying to find a pretty border, however in the end I went simple and did a double ruffle border which I saw in a Youtube video .

I went with one row of grey ruffle and one row of orange, primarily because I had the most wool in those colours. Once I'd completed the pattern I added in a row of double crochet in yellow the another rows of double crochet in grey and then worked the ruffles in that final row.







The next plan was to make a hat to match and luckily, issue 26 of Sinmply Crochet had a lovely version on the front page using similar stitches and so I made this using the remaining wool I had.


This is the hat on the model and below is my version......................



So here is my finished hat and I love it because it is so warm and covers my ears which I hate being cold.

Here is a close-up of the border to the hat.................



And a close-up of the colours................



It's been a great make and I've seen several very different versions on the web. It's great how one pattern can be so individualised.

My crochet project at the moment is a shawl so I'll let you know how that one goes too.

Oh yes and before I forget for all the chocolate lovers...............





4 comments:

  1. Wow! That is amazing, you've made it so beautifully, you must be thrilled with them both, and just in time for the bad weather!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my goodness, this takes me back ... My mother crocheted me a poncho like this in the middle 60s. I love the colours in yours and the neckline looks very cosy - I think mine was just a slit. Wishing you much joy in the wearing of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the colours...you'll be extremely cosy I should imagine! Xx

    ReplyDelete
  4. They are fantastic Jo! I love the poncho, it looks vey snug and of course loved the little surprise of chocolate at the end! :)

    ReplyDelete

Hello and thank you so much for stopping by. It is always a pleasure to read the comments I receive and to meet new friends. I try and reply to comments on friend's blogs as much as possible. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and look forward to seeing you here again soon. Love Jo xxx