Andean Knitting Adventures: Poncho #1

I know that I've been writing an insane amount of blog entries but it's just because I have so much to write about!

Welcome to Chapter 1 of Carrie's Andean Knitting Adventures

Poncho #1
I just finished my 3rd knitting project: a poncho! This being my 3rd knitting venture, I wanted to try something simple again that was not a scarf. A poncho seemed like the perfect option. I didn't have circular needles to do one complete peice so I found a pattern that used two different peices that would be put together. I found some fun brown yarn on Lana Lane (that's not really what the street is called but there are several yarn stores like Palacio de Lanas (Yarn Palace) there). My pattern was a little fancier with eyelet holes so I had to pay more attention to what I was doing. Sometimes I would stop in the middle of what I was doing and say..."wait did I just do a yarn over or a double knit??"

In the end my peices looked way shorter than I thought they should be. My faithful Spanish profesor and avid knitter explained that I knitted them too tightly. Whoops! I have so much to learn. In knitting there is something called gauge that I'm not sure that I get yet. Making tassels took a long time but was fun. The sewing together was a little stressful. I did a backstitch like the pattern said but found that it left too much of a bulge. So I took out the yarn I used to sew it together and tried again with something else that I made up. Probably an experienced knitter would gasp at how I sewed it together but thankfully the yarn itself is inconsistent in makeup so it hides any bad stitch up job.

Thus my poncho was finished on Wednesday night. I proudly wore my creation to work the next day only to discover that my poncho likes to leave a part of itself behind when you wear it! Hee hee... I guess if I knew more about yarns, I would have figured that out beforehand. Ah well, I still like it and it sure is cozy and warm...almost like wearing a blanket. I think I'm gonna appreciate it a whole bunch in the next couple of frigid months!