Knit a Pretty Poncho with Lace and Cables

I have long considered myself to be not a poncho person. Other than making one for my daughter when she was really young, I don’t think I’ve ever knit one, because I don’t know if it’s a style I would wear.

But if we’re being honest, a poncho can just be a shawl that’s easier to wear, right?

That’s what the Colette pattern from the Berroco design team reminded me of. It is actually just a rectangle with a head hole, so it’s exactly like a shawl that won’t fall off your shoulders.

The design of this one reminds me of a shawl, too. It’s worked in a DK weight yarn with an allover pattern of eyelets and cables. The lace design makes diamond shapes and the cables run up the middle of the diamonds, making for a complex look but it’s still pretty casual and wearable. The yarn called for is a superwash wool, which makes it warm without being too heavy (thanks to the DK weight) and also makes it easier to care for the finished garment.

Because of all that’s going on in this design, it’s rated for experienced knitters. The rows with cable turns often have a couple (and as many as four) different kinds of cables that are worked across the fabric, and the pattern design is charted so you need to be comfortable working from a large and complex chart.

The poncho comes in four sizes so you can decide how much drape or extra fabric you want on the sides. The width ranges from 37 to 50.5 inches, or 94 to 128.5 cm, and the longer the width the more it will cover your arms and become like a wearable blanket. Which is definitely a concept I can get behind.

You can grab this free pattern from Berroco.

[Photo: Berroco.]

Summer Poncho Knitting Patterns

Knit a Poncho in Colorful Brioche

A Poncho Pattern that Might Actually Make Me Want to Knit a Poncho

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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