Spiky poncho

We really like this asymmetrical take on the ol'hippie poncho. The best part is that you can wear the spike anywhere you'd like according to your mood - front, side or center.

It's heavy enough for real outerwear and drapes nicely because of the soft wool. The simple shaping means it can easily be adapted for children, or for the most ample of knitters. The stitch is very easy, the look handspun, it's one of those projects that give a lot of bang for the buck and yet can be handled by pretty much rank beginners.

Level of difficulty

Beginner.

Measurements

Finished rectangle: size med-xl 20"x60", size 2X-4X: 24"x64".

Materials

4 (5) balls Crystal Palace Labrador (100g, 110yd) color 7163 (mustard), 100% Australian merino wool (or any print color).
4 (5) balls Crystal Palace Iceland (100g, 85yd) color 4320 (leaf), 100% Australian merino wool (or any matching solid color).
Bamboo needle, circular 26" long size 15 (10mm)
Optional: crochet hook size L (8mm)

Gauge

7.5 st = 4" (10cm) over stockinette.

Stitch pattern

The basic stitch is the stockinette, ie knit one row and purl the next. We've introduced a meta-Bohus take on it. You're holding together through the whole project one smooth solid-color yarn (Iceland), and one thick-and-thin printed yarn (Labrador). Pick a color of the printed yarn you want to emphasize, any color that's the not the same as the even yarn. You'll occasionally come across a fat bit of that color, which will be your highlight. Knit it in the regular way, as you're doing that row. On the following row, when you get to that highlight on the needle, knit it the opposite way - ie if you're on a knit row purl that stitch, or if you're on a purl row knit that stitch. This will make the color pop out on the right side. You can see in the detail shot that we used the blue as a highlight color. Because the lengths of the color and thickness repeats are different, you'll get a random pattern without having to think about it. You could split hairs about how fat the highlight has to be to use it, just use your judgement. We used 'fatter than the even yarn' as our criterion. And we tried to only use the highlights that were going to make a whole stitch, not the ones that fell between stitches. But you can do whatever you want as long as you're consistent.

DIRECTIONS

Two yarns are held together through the whole thing. Cast on (38, 46) stitches. Knit a rectangle in stockinette, with the above meta-Bohus stitch pattern if desired. Purl the last stitch of every row and slip the first of every row to keep the edges looking neat, and to make an edge that'll be easy to pick up from later. When rectangle is (60", 64") long, cast off.

Attach short side to long Sew short side of rectangle to long side, forming a point. Trim neck and outer edges with a simple single crochet to keep them from rolling. Single-crochet from the wrong side looks best.

If you're one of those always-blocking people, you may lightly steam the edges a bit to help them stay flat. But beginners please, don't go too far: it'd be easy to squash all the texture you've painstainkingly put in.

Note: if you don't know how to crochet at all, you should instead start and end the rectangle with a few rows of garter stitch, and put 3 stitches of garter stitch on each side, to keep the edges from rolling.

Note: people seem strangely confused about what colors might go together... We've put together a page of likely color matches for clarification...