Here's another work in progress. I offered to make my daughter a lace shawl to take to college this fall. She said she'd worry about wearing a shawl properly, but a poncho would be a lot easier to handle. She wanted a style to emphasize the lace stitches, thus this project.
The pattern was from the Elann website, by Michelle Ciccariello. It's an awkwardly worded pattern, especially for a new knitter; it took me several tries to finally understand how the increases worked, and why I should change to a larger needle after every ball of yarn. (Note to fellow knitting newbies: increasing needle size increases the circumference of the poncho from top to bottom.) I haven't found any errors in the pattern, just vague and/or missing instructions.
I'm using KnitPicks Andean Silk yarn. I have used circular needles in US sizes 7,8,9, and now 10. KnitPicks Options interchangeable cables and needle tips make this a lot easier, especially when I remember to attach the larger tip only on the right needle for the first round, then wait to change the left tip until after I've knitted a round of new, larger stitches.
The collar is moss stitch, then there is a section of English mesh lace, then 5 repeats (the pattern says to knit 3) of horseshoe lace. I'm now working on the section that should have mini-vine lace, but I have substituted florette lace from an old needlework book, just because I think it's easier and prettier. The last section is to be a border knitted flat, by picking up stitches from the last round. My changes to the pattern have been toward denser lace to make a warmer poncho.
I haven't figured out my gauge because the lace patterns and needle sizes vary with every ball of yarn. Because of my changes to the pattern, I'm running out of yarn early, and I've had to order more. I'm also worried that the poncho may end up too long. I plan to block it before adding the border, just in case. The pattern calls for 9 balls of yarn, and I'm finishing my eighth now, only about 2/3 of the way into the project. I thought I was being really careful by ordering 10 balls. Ha!
I've been using lifelines on the first row of every lace repeat, and markers between each repeat within a row. I didn't start out keeping track so closely, but after frogging the poncho severely several times, I decided to play it safe. The work has gone more quickly since then, because if my stitch count is off, I can find the discrepancy much more easily.
