The reason for my silence... A simple idea that turned into quite a large project. (Not uncommon!) Since my money is tight at present I decided to crochet my niece a poncho for her birthday. I started about 3rd March making little squares of flowers using a popcorn stitch. However they took a lot longer to make than I thought they would. Simple, just time consuming. So I changed the pattern I had and made it up as I went. I still only finished it this morning.I decided to make enough squares to go around the shoulders and then stitched them together making a little fence between each popcorn flower. Then I added some double crochet stitches to make a simple neckline before moving on to the main part.
I just guessed and tried and decided what worked. Part way down I decided to add some interest and brought back in the pink and tried out a festoon stitch. As I continued I began to worry I may not have enough yarn. I managed a decent length before the greyish purple ran out with about 15cm to spare. So I set to work on making an edge with the pink with a bit of popcorn detail. But I soon discovered, after an evening of crochet, that there wasn't enough to get around. My housemate and her boyfriend tried to convince me not to unpull it and re-do it but rather try and find some matching yarn. Try as they did they could not persuade me. The pink yarn I bought in Adelaide some 7hrs drive away and also some 3 years ago. The greyish purple was opshop scraps. I discovered a little extra of the pink yarn in my stash but even with that it wasn't enough. So yesterday I unpulled it and spread the popcorns out more and got right around the bottom.
Today I tidied up the wild ends of yarn and neatened it all up. As I crocheted from the square of popcorn flowers, and as I wasn't following a pattern, I did more stitches than needed to keep it a flat square. And especially after the festoon stitch it had a real wave in it. But I think it looks lovely with the wave. A little more special. I hope my now 9 year old niece loves it when I get the chance to see her and give it to her. I like the way it looks and the way it falls. But it certainly took a bit longer than expected.
That's very nice! I posted mine on the right day, but it was a bit late. My scarf will match your poncho, I think. hehe.
ReplyDeleteBTW, it cost me almost as much to post it as it did to by the yarn. lol. But Simon said she loved getting a parcel.
The ruffley wave suits it. I think you should make them that way on purpose Ü
Ooops. Almost got sprung looking at this by the future recipient of it.
ReplyDeleteI just clicked on here and was thinking, "That looks nice", started to read and realised who it was for. She started to walk in just then so I had to quickly click to another screen so she wouldn't see it.
I'm sure she'll love it and I can't wait to see it on her. I think it'll match the scarf too.