My good friend Andrea suggested a trade: I'd knit her a poncho in exchange for great stuff from her textiles line,
Pink Wagon. She wanted it to be brown and non-lacy. To make the knitting interesting and the garment unique, I suggested a menswear-like herringbone stitch and custom-dyed Blue Faced Leicester from
the Fleece Artist. I also suggested a two-rectangle style of construction so that one day, if she didn't really to wear it as a poncho any more, I could reconfigure it as a shawl or a stole.
The neck has a facing, in dark brown, but I left it unhemmed so that it would be drapey.
Here's the pattern. I apolgize in advance for the nitpicky finishing instructions.
HERRINGBONE PONCHO
This poncho is made up of two 20"x31" rectangles
Yarn: Fleece Artist Bluefaced Leicester DK, 2 x 225g skeins (with little to spare).
Properties of this yarn (bear in mind when substituting): Soft and drapey with a slight halo but clear stitch definition at given gauge after washing.
• For optional neck facing: small amount of slightly finer yarn in coordinating colour.
Other tools: 4mm circular needle, 32 inches long; two safety pins; scrap yarn for holding stitches; yarn needle
Gauge: The stitches per inch are difficult to measure in this pattern, because they are angled. I based my gauge measurement on the width of the pattern repeats. 4 repeats (28 stitches)=6" on 4mm needles after blocking, so very close to 4.5 stitches per inch.
Important Notes:
• Work the increase as follows: insert the tip of your right needle downwards through the purl bump at the back of the stitch below the next stitch on the needle and knit it, then knit the next stitch on the on the needle (above it).
• Edge stitches are worked to create a chain stitch selvedge.
• The finishing technique I describe is optional. You can also simply bind off and seam using whichever method you choose. However, my method will produce very nice, symmetrical results.
Instructions:
Cast on 94 stitches.
First and every odd-numbered row: slip 1 knitwise, purl to end
Row 2: slip 1 purlwise, *k2tog, k2, increase in next stitch, k2* repeat to last two stitches, k1, p1
Row 4: slip 1 purlwise, k1 *k2, increase in next stitch, k2, k2tog* repeat to last stitch, p1
Continue in pattern until work measures 32". Do not bind off. Leave stitches on waste yarn.
Work a second, identical rectangle.
Block rectangles to specified dimensions.
Finishing:
Lay rectangles out side by side and right side up, with the live stitch ends pointing in the same direction. Measuring from the cast-on edge, place a safety pin 20 inches up the right hand side of each rectangle.
Keeping the right side facing, rotate one rectangle 180 degrees, so that the live stitches point in the opposite direction. The marked edges of the rectangles will be facing each other.
You are going to graft the live stitch heads of one rectangle to the marked-off rows on the other. In order to do this nicely, you will need to determine the ratio of your stitches-per-inch to rows-per-inch.
We already know that your stitch gauge measured over 4 inches is 18 (4.5 x 4).
Now measure your row gauge over 4 inches. For the purposes of this demonstration, let's say it's 24.
Now express this relationship as a ratio of stitches to rows - 18:24
Now reduce the ratio to the smallest whole numbers as possible by finding the largest number by which both figures can be divided.
18 and 24 can both be evenly divided by 6, giving a ratio of 3:4. This means that you will seam 3 stitches to 4 rows.
Seam as follows (a combination of grafting and mattress stitch):
Arrange the rectangles so they are at right angles, with the stitch heads aligned with the edge to which you're going to seam them. Thread a length of yarn onto a blunt needle.
1. Bring the needle through the first stitch head from behind
2. *run the needle behind the corresponding horizontal "bar" between the first (selvedge) and second stitch on the other rectangle. Bring the needle back into the stitch head from the front and through the next stitch head from behind. Repeat from* twice more. (3 stitches grafted to 3 rows).
3. Run the needle behind 2 horizontal "bars" before passing it back into the stitch head from the front and through the next stitch head from behind. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to end of seam. Weave in ends.
Repeat with second seam.
Optional neck facing:
Pick up and knit stitches along one half of neck hole. Knit in stocking stitch for about one inch, then graft stitches to wrong side of poncho fabric. Stitch side edges of facing to wrong side of fabric - one edge will be flush with the seam. Repeat along other edge of neck hole. Pat lightly with iron on steam setting.
(c)M. Fautley, 2005.
