Every year the shops are filled with Christmas jumpers from October time. I love them, there are so many designs and I could easily buy myself one for every day in December but I just cannot wear jumpers. I get far too hot so you’ll usually find me in t-shirts all year round. This year I had two Christmas t-shirts but decided to jazz things up a bit and do my own version of a Christmas jumper and make myself a festive poncho! I chose James C Brett’s Sparkle yarn for this in a deep red colour. I’d used the gold version of this yarn before for a shawl so knew it was nice to work with.
Once I’d chosen the yarn it was time to choose the pattern. I had a goo look on Ravelry, Pinterest and Etsy, I had an idea in my mind of what I was looking for but couldn’t find anything that matched. I tried creating my own pattern but it didn’t quite pan out. So I went back to a pattern I’d used before to create a great poncho. You can purchase the pattern here. It’s not an expensive pattern but very useful for creating quick and easy ponchos for anyone of any age with any yarn you’d like. I’ve used chunky and DK yarn to make this before. The pattern says it takes three hours, well it took me a little longer. As I was using a different yarn to the pattern it took a little extra time to work out the right length and width for me. I worked on it most nights for about 3-4 weeks. The aim was to wear it for the official Christmas Jumper Day on December 14th and I finished it just in time. I knew I’d need to block it to help it fall better. Well it was washed and pinned out to block on the 12th and then I finished joining it on the 13th.
I didn’t add the fringe to this one as once blocked and joined I felt it was long enough without the fringe. I’ve added the fringe to previous ponchos and it really does finish it off nicely. The other thing that’s nice is to add a flower to the front, this also ensure that the person will keep the join at the back. See the photos below showing my progress and the final picture of the finished poncho!
My next project is a bag with a difference – hopefully I’ll be able to post about that in January if I get it finished!! As always please feel free to leave any comments or questions below about the poncho!
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