Christine Linfeld’s shawl as a poncho

ridelikethewind’s PONCHO

Check out her poncho on Ravelry in her projects.  Hers is much prettier than mine, I'm afraid.  She used worsted weight yarn on a midgauge so her gauge is larger than mine, that is less stitches and rows. She was inspired by Bill King's waterfall sweater. She kindly helped me get my head around the construction and once I caught on, it was easy and went fast,

I used mohair from Cindy Schmatz when she had a yarn sale.  I used about 10- 50 gr hand knitting skeins I think…   Wound onto cones.  Unfortunately, I lost track!  Used my  LK 150 at T 4.

There are eyelets down center front and center back only, not also over the shoulders as in the original Christine Linfeld’s shawl. Also, the original shawl has 4 points.  This has two: one in front and one in back.

Overview of construction:

Start with waste yarn several rows and 1 row ravel cord over (110) needles.  On last row of waste yarn, transfer to the needle setup of lllxlllx….  Add extra stitches at each side which will be neck and bottom edges.
 Start with straight section and knit (72) rows. CAR.

Begin short rows: Set machine to hold. At the opposite side of the carriage, Hold 3 needles, knit 4 rows.  At the same time, short row at the neck (left side) 3 additional stitches and wrap end n every 8 rows.  (didn’t do enough the first time see note at end)
Finish short rowing:  Opposite the carriage put 3 N in work, knit 4 rows until all N are in work.

Straight section: Knit the same number of rows as you did the first time.  Front (or back) completed.

Repeat the whole thing for the other side of the poncho.

End with one row of ravel cord and  then several rows of waste yarn. You will be joining at one shoulder.  Kitchener stitch the seam.  It’s kind of awkward kitchener stitching because of the needle out of work loop.  Try to stitch 3 st to three st so it looks continuous but lies flat.  Truly it takes much longer to seam this than it did to knit it,  Run in any yarn tails.

Additional comments:  I recommend using a highly contrasting waste yarn color to help you find the stitches for kitchenering.  I have put my measurements in parenthesis because you will want to use your own number of stitches, hence rows.  I am rather fluffy these days so mine is XL, which is comfy for a poncho for me.  Because I didn't short row the neck enough, the neck turned out huge!  She ended up with 22 ridges, I have 27.
 Attempt to tighten neck because I didn't want to rip out the whole thing!!!:
3.25 crochet hook, yarn DOUBLED.  Chain stitch (not sc) around starting at shoulder picking up every other knit stitch x 9 then skip 2 knit st for the 10^{th  chain}stitch. Row 2 chain in each chain st.

Mine ended up with these measurements:

32" seems like a lot for the neck, but it really isn't.  I prefer to not have clothing tight around the neck.  This sits nicely on the shoulders.  The neck doesn’t look so puffy when worn so I’m not that unhappy about it.  Next time:  short row  # ????  Will need to experiment.  Did leave the bottom edge alone even though it curls a little.

Close up of eyelets:

 Red is super hard to photograph, especially with this cheap phone camera of mine. Plus the halo of the mohair doesn't show. As always looks much nicer in person.  I hope you have a good imagination because this pattern really is a gem.  I think it will be good to wear this in spring and fall and also in the house when temps are below zero outside.