Note: If you are wondering why the pattern gives one amount of meterage of yarn, yet the people who have knit the item seem to have used almost double that amount, its because they held the yarn double, BUT have omitted to mention this important point in their notes.

Because of the huge discrepancy in amounts of yarn, I ordered extra wool to be on the safe side, it will not go to waste, but it is annoying to find that this was not mentioned.

14 November

Having got the polo neck knit, I got a about 10 cms into the actual poncho top and into the swing of the pattern, when I noticed a large hole at one of my increases, there were also some untidy bits I was not happy with, in particular the cast off polo neck, where the v chain was to be picked up, was untidy having been tricky to pick up, and some holes here, along with poor line up on the pattern. Also, although I know the long tail cast on is a good stretchy one to use for things such as this, it had puckered with the polo neck pattern pulling in in on the k2 areas, so…..I decided to rip it all out and start afresh.

Being a perfectionist all these mistakes would have annoyed me. I have cast on with the crochet cast on, which is a favourite of mine, it’s looking much neater already. I feel more confident I know what I am doing now and can apply my knitting knowledge to the work. Some photos once I get back onto the poncho body. I will upload the old polo neck which is not yet unravelled to show my puckering.

23 November 2018

Today I drew a diagram of how the pattern works and uploaded it here to photos. Obviously, all decreases do not necessarily fall on all rows, one needs to refer to the written pattern for this info, but this diagram gives me a visual picture of what I am doing as my mind works in pictures and I have a photographic memory. I now have a clear idea of how I should be working and why the right and left-leaning slants for the increases work as they do.

25 November

I’m not getting on with the instructions, & don’t like to contact the designer yet again, so I am just going to do my own thing for the rest of this pattern.

15 December

Finished this last night. Did my own thing after the two top garter stripes. Fringes did not suit me in the 1970’s so they are unlikely to suit me now. I added an interesting bind off instead and then added it retrospectively to the collar also to tie in the off-white in the overall pattern. Very cosy with the Alpaca and am thrilled with the end result. Great with jeans and boots. Will get some pics of me wearing it when someone is at home to take them.

NOTE: the poncho has not been washed nor blocked in any of these photos yet. It will look smoother when I get this done, and pin it out to dry, but the weather is too cold and damp at present, it would take forever to dry on my dining table and Christmas is nearly upon us, when we will be using the table for our meal.