If you read my blog a few weeks ago about reviewing some ‘works in progress’ (WIPs) you may have seen the note that the crochet flower poncho had been put into hibernation. But that did not mean that the project had left my mental space. Floating up as a thought once in a while and wondering what to do with it. To understand the wall I was up against I will start with my idea and vision of ‘my’ poncho. It was beautifully displayed on the cover of ‘Love of crochet’ magazine and I fell immediately in love with it. I had four balls of fuchsia pink to crochet with, but needed another 3-4 balls of cotton as per pattern. So, I bought some complimentary colours: a variegated white to fuchsia and a white to create a slow colour change from the bottom edge in white to light fuchsia to fuchsia around my shoulders.

Poncho pattern

Colour gradient

First ten flowers

assembly diagram

Reading through the pattern multiple times there was no mention in which direction the poncho was being crafted or which side of the ‘assembly diagram’ was supposed to the the garment’s bottom or sides. During years of knitting garments and reading their measurement diagrams, those were usually displayed with the bottom edge at the bottom of the diagram. Even when the knit was beginning at one sleeve and knitting across the neck to the other sleeve the diagram would face the same way. Thus, I assumed it to be the same here. I didn’t realize until I had crocheted 10 flowers for my first row, held them stretched out along my shoulder-line from left to right, and wondering if I really needed the other 5, that I may have looked at the assembly diagram the wrong way. Going back to the photo which depicted only short sleeves, I thought my gauge couldn’t be that wrong ( I had measured the first flower and compared it to the given size in the pattern). This was the point when I examined the photo closer, counted the number of flowers in the middle from the bottom edge to the neckline and realizing that the ‘first row’ was being crocheted from the front over the shoulder to the back. Meaning that shown diagram showed me the side edge at the bottom. This was totally screwing up my colour transition plan! Forcing me to create vertical striping instead of horizontal. Not good and a full-stop to my crocheting for the next 3 months.

Thankfully, it all changed when another fellow knitter suggested to join their weekly crochet/craft group. This time I thought “Why not? May be, I will find motivation again to continue the poncho”. One of the nights before the first meeting I woke up in the early morning hours and couldn’t fall asleep again. Suddenly, it hit me: I could just alter the assembly pattern and turn it by 90 degrees on its side.

Working assembly from the bottom edgae up

Colour distribution over 15 rows

second row in progress

Perfect! That would change the look slightly with regards to the borders as now the more wavy border will be falling over my shoulders. Currently, I am working with 10 flowers in one row alternating with 9 in the next and will see how that will impact the setting for the neck opening since there were originally 11 rows = flowers along the bottom edge. As I am plotting along there are ideas popping into my head: how about creating the neck opening in row 8 by leaving out 4 flowers in the middle? That may work. If it looks askew, then I will execute Plan B and add another flower to the end of each row and see if that solves the potential issue…

Anyway, it is so much fun to crochet this project again and seeing it grow every week. I can’t wait to see the colour changing soon!

Thank you, for reading my blog and following my adventures in Abu Dhabi! Maike