This poncho was designed for my sister-in-law Diana who
bought the yarn at a thrift store with a poncho in mind. It is knitted in the round starting from the neckline and working down, because I didn’t know how much yarn I had or would need so I figured I’d knit until I ran out. This was a bulky (8wpi) single ply unidentified wool yarn. (The yarn needed was calculated by measuring & weighing a length of yarn and weighing the finished poncho and adding wiggle room.) A yarn with more plies would give better stitch definition.

The construction is based on a top-down raglan pullover with a ribbed neckband and has increases between the front, sleeves and back. There are no net increases in cable band and the cables change the gauge pulling inwards to hug you around the shoulders and keep the poncho from rotating around your neck. The increases resume after the cable band and continue the full length of the poncho which ends in a seed stitch border to prevent the edges from curling. The cable pattern is modified from Viking Pattern for Knitting by Elsebeth Lavold.

There is no reason that you couldn’t make the poncho longer or shorter, by changing the number of the Increasing Rows below the cable to the desired length before starting the Seed Stitch border.

The pattern is written out except for the cable panel which is charted only.

There are links to tutorials on Lifted Increases.