Memorial Day weekend was our first weekend at the cabin in Chaumont! It was so amazing to be back there again, I really miss it in the winter. It was also Willow's first trip up. She absolutely loved it, she loved it so much that when it came down to get in the car to go home - she laid down in protest.

While we were up there I had brought with me a 1000 yard set from Cat Mountain Fiber Arts. This was a yarn set of the same color varient, but in 10 different yarns. Each yarn is approximately 100 yards long for a total of 1000 yards. The yarns are all roughly the same weight. This particular color is called Wood Nymph.


I knew that I wanted to make a poncho out of this yarn, but having not made one before I was reading various patterns to get an idea of what to do. This pattern from Spoons and Hooks helped me with the aha! moment to get me going. What this made me see is - start with a circle and then you're going to grow on each corner by 2 each round - that's it!




I realized recently that half double crochet is my favorite stitch. I find that my hands can do patterns with it really fast and I just really get in a groove. Knowing that I had 100 yards of each and that this was a circular poncho, I made the decision that I would use all of one yarn and then just switch - and not worry about only switching on a new row. With the finished poncho you can't tell the difference and I was able to make it as large as possible by not worrying about it.




This pattern uses a 6mm hook.
Abbreviations:
hdc = half double crochet
hdcblo = half double crochet back loop only
sc = single crochet
ch = chain
sk st = skip stitch
bobble = yarn over, pull up, yarn over, pull up, yarn over, pull up, pull through all the stitches (7), chain
v stitch = two hdc in the same stich, skip a stitch
tr = treble crochet
granny corner = 2 stiches (whatever you did in that round - sc, hdc, or tr) in the first chain stitch, ch 2, 2 stitches (whatever you're doing in that round) in the second chain stitch.

I used a foundation hdc to start this poncho. Why? Because I just learned how to do it and I think it's really cool plus practice! I cast on 55 stitches because that's what felt good with this yarn around my neck. Cast on an odd number of stitches whatever makes sense for your head (it should be able to easily fit over without catching ears) with whatever yarn you use.
For each row that you do you're going to increase by 4 stitches - 2 on each side. It's like the corner of a granny square. You're going to do 2 of the stitch in the first chain, chain 2 then do 2 of the stich in the second chain stitch.
Once you have your chain - join it back to the beginning making sure that you have no kinks in the chain. Now mark the spot on the opposite side of where you joined. For me with 55 stitches this was the stitch that was 28 away.

Row 1: ch 2 and hdc in the starting stitch. ch 2 then 2 more hdc in the same stitch. hdc in each stitch to your marker. 2 hdc in the marker stitch ch 2 then 2 hdc in the same stitch. hdc back to the begining. sl stitch to join

Row 2-4: ch 2, hdc all the way around with a granny corner in the two sides
Row 5-you run out of the first yarn: ch 1, sc, sk stitch, 2 sc, repeat to end




This next section is a repeating pattern until you get to the last row.
Row 1-2:ch 2, v stitch around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 3: ch 2, hdc around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 4: ch 2, bobble around, granny stitch with hdc in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 5: ch 2, hdc around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
Row 6-8: ch 2, hdcblo around, granny stitch in open spaces, sl stitch to join
I did this pattern 4 times. In the 3rd an 4th rounds I switched up the bobble row to do bobble, ch, sk stitch to save yarn. The bobble stitch takes up a lot of yarn and I was looking to save yarn as my poncho got larger. I also ended on a bobble stitch because I thought it would compliment the eddging in my head well.




The edging was pretty simple.
Row 1: ch 7 (4 for the tr, 3 ch), tr crochet, *sk stitch, tr, ch 3, tr * repeat *. This is the only row without a granny corner. In the open chain space just tr, chain 2, tr on the other side
Row 2: The goal of this row is to have a picot in the middle of the v of the treble. Sl stitch in the first chain, sl stitch in the second chain, ch 4, sl stitch into the same stitch (to create the picot), sc in the next stitch, sl stitch where the 2 tr meet.




I had a little bit of yarn leftover so I decided to create a bit more of a neck and use up all the yarn.
Row 1: sc all the way around (no granny)
Row 2: v stitch all the way around (no granny)
Row 3: sc all the way around (no granny)
I had JUST enough yarn to do this and weave in my end. Really happy with the finished result, but will have to wait until it gets chilly again to wear.




There is no "right" way to choose which yarns to use where. I knew I wanted something really soft by my neck so I used what I'm pretty sure was the mohair to start with. I also knew that the two boucle type yarns would be wasted in the bobble and that I wanted them to be apart from each other so I switched to them when I knew I was going into the hdcblo and v stitch sections. Have fun with it!
My crochet supervisors asleep on the job.