The time and place was a few years ago in winter in Syria. The yarn was bought there, made in Turkey, and is approximately sport weight.

I began with two incomplete mitred squares around the neckline, and built rounds of assorted sizes of larger and smaller mitred squares upon them until it was a 6’ square. Then I picked up stitches around the neckline and worked rounds of 1x1 ribbing with an eyelet row near the beginning. If needed as a blanket, a cord can be run through the eyelets to close up the hole. :)

Due to an imbalance in how much of each colour I was able to buy, most of the squares are worked with two colours - alternating two rows of each. This makes for a definite ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ side.

The name … well, no one over there knows the word ‘poncho’, and the only way to explain what I was working on all those weeks was to describe it as a blanket with a hole in the center. For some reason and despite their use of all sorts of flowing garments, a piece of fabric that goes over the head and hangs loosely all around is not in their culture.

The many ends were graciously dealt with by my dear knitting buddy, Ginette. Otherwise, it would still be on my WIP list, where it had been for the last few years.