marita’s coffee chitchat

WEEEH! I’ve finished The Poncho! I’m ecstatic! It feels great to have it done, and i’ve learned a few things during this process aswell! Take a look at this pic right here! What are we looking at? Well, it’s an assemblystitch i learned, called Mattress Stitch (how to). It’s practically invisible.

IMO you can only see the seam by the colordifference from the two sides.

Warning: Loads of Pic-Tars! Mwahaha I’m so full of it!

The hood isnt in the original pattern, but i knew Tone wanted a poncho with a hood (although she said I didnt need to trouble with it). I decided to give it a shot anyway, and it turned out pretty OK me thinks. Crocheted offwhite edging to make it more ‘complete’ and visible. The hood is easily removable as its attached with buttons. This hood is knitted back and forth with a slight decrease in the center/back. Instead of binding off and assembling the top of the hood with some kinda magic stitch, I decided to try out the Three-Needle-Bindoff (How To at the bottom). I used a crochethook instead of the third needle, and it was piece of cake!

Hood up

Goddamn I just LOVE the way the Hood lays in the back!

It was pretty hard to find buttons that would work with this poncho in colours and size. I wanted flat ones with matching colours, and the ’sturdy’ theme the entire poncho has. After going through the button-shelves in various shops, I ended up in an Italian Sow&Fabric shop, with like millions of buttons! I explained my errand to the shopkeeper and she dug into the back of some shelves and i bet these buttons have been hiding there for like 30 years! I fell for them instantly even tho i’m not much into this style ^^

Perfect match if you ask me. The red button isn’t as bright as it seems on this pic, and it goes real nicely with the red shades of the yarn

Still reading? The poncho itself is knitted in two pieces - front and back that are identical to eachother. I really truly hate long purlrows, and when someone mentioned you can actually knit purlrows with right side facing you, i just HAD to try it! It was real awkward to begin with, and my right hand kept cramping until i figured a good way to hold the yarn, but ITS AWESOME! This way i never need to turn the piece, when I come to the end of a row i just flip the yarn from one hand to the other and knit back. Here’s a How To even for this technique (at the bottom)! I’ll finish with a couple fullview pics, just because I can!