From By Hand Serial:
Sometimes I find a skein of yarn that is so stunning that I worry that any pattern I knit with it will distract from the beauty of the yarn. Instead, I wish I could find a way to just wear that skein – drape it across myself and make the yarn itself the focal point. That was what I had in mind when I designed this simple poncho. The Swan’s Island natural dyes yarn is the perfect example of the look that can be created with natural dyes in a kettle-dyed yarn. The color changes from magenta to deep purple to beet red, but it’s not so variegated as to seem multi-colored. Instead, it just gives a gentle wash of color changes across the palette you create when it’s knit up.

I experimented with several different knit stitches, and even some cabling, but everything I tried seemed to fight with the yarn, instead of working with it. I decided to let the yarn be the focus of the piece, and knit it in a simple stockinette stitch, with purl bump rows spaced across the knit to break up the stockinette a little. I loved the finished look of ribbing at the top and bottom, and I used rib stitches on the sides to keep them from rolling. I love being able to knit the ribbed edge as I go along, instead of the dread of picking up all those stitches to add a ribbed band afterwards.
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