I have another pretty pattern to share this week while the weather stays cold - the tree hugger mittens. This pattern features one of my favorite stitches- seed stitch. When knit in our thick and thin Sister yarn, the resulting look is a beautifully uneven and rustic texture. I especially love the natural, earthy-girl feeling they have. Either knit them with 1 skein of Sister or with 2 if you want to try the color tipped option. We knit ours in colors Driftwood and Ivory. You may notice that we are sadly out of many Sister colors right now. Most of them are due back in stock next week and are available for pre-order now. We'll make sure to ship the yarn out as soon as it arrives in! Pattern and yarn details here.
Here we are! Already on week 3 and I'm almost finished with my poncho. How about you? I hope you've been having fun knitting along with me. I truly cannot wait to see all of these finished pieces! If you're following along with us than hopefully you've reached the stripe portion of your poncho. If not, no worries, whenever you finish, we can't wait to see!
Follow along in the below video to get an overview of how the stripes knit up.
A few things to keep in mind first:
* You will have 4 Cast Away stripes plus the cast off edge is knit in Cast Away, this will look like 5 Cast Away stripes in total when you're all finished.
* The number of rows per Cast Away stripe varies throughout the pattern - be sure to follow the written pattern for exact details. Here's a quick overview- your 1st Cast Away stripe will be 3 rows, the 2nd: 2 rows, the 3rd: 3 rows, the 4th: 2 rows and the final stripe 1 row and then the cast off row.
* We mix in purl rows to create more texture in your poncho - see video for a detail of what this looks like.
* The Sister yarn portion of your stripe will always be knit in simple stockinette knit stitches - 4 rows total for each Sister yarn section.
Start knitting your Cast Away Stripes
Simply start knitting with the Cast Away yarn. There is no need to knit to cut the Sister yarn until the last Sister yarn row. When it comes time to knit with Sister yarn again, simply start knitting. This will create a little yarn float on the backside of your knitting (see video for reference). As long as you don't pull that stitch too tightly your knitted fabric should not pucker. I prefer doing this as opposed to cutting the yarn for each stripe and then weaving in a bunch of ends.
This week, try to get through your stripes. Next week we'll be casting off and showing off our finished ponchos- yay! Right in time for Thanksgiving :)
Hooray for week 2! Have you been knitting along with me? I sure hope so! If you've been following along on instagram, then you've definitely seen me progress throughout the week. I made it through the 8" turtleneck rib and I'm now ready to start knitting the poncho body. This week I'll show you how to switch to your larger needles, place your markers throughout your knitting and how to knit the kf&b stitch. Lastly, I'll talk about how to customize the body length of your poncho.
Switch needle size & place your stitch markers
I recommend using 2 different colored stitch markers than whatever you used to mark the beginning of your knitting round. This will help you differentiate between the end of the round and the rest of your knitted body. If you don't have proper stitch markers, a simple piece of waste yarn tied into a circle will work perfectly.
Next up, let's talk about the kf&b stitch also know as 'knit into the front and back loop'. Kf&b is a simple common stitch used to increase your knitting by one stitch. Watch the below video to learn how to do this!
Would you like to lengthen or shorten your poncho? Here I'll talk about how to do that! If you have any questions along the way, please feel free to reach out to me (amy@knitcollage.com) or the designer Cheryl (cheryl@knitcollage.com) If you'd like to keep up with me, try to finish the body portion of your poncho before next Wednesday, November 16th. Next week, I'll talk about adding in the Cast Away stripes to your poncho.
