Do you remember my Home Poncho from last winter? Well here I am again embarking on another poncho making journey following a pattern from this months Simply Crochet magazine (issue 25). The Cowl-neck Poncho is a design by Simone Francis, and although I still have an irrational fear of written crochet patterns, I managed to get over it and jumped right in to give it a go. It was the bright colours that immediately caught my eye on the page, but also I do have a bit of a soft spot for crochet ponchos. I know they are a bit daft and not everyone's cup of tea but I really do like them. More to the point, I really enjoy being wrapped up in warm woolly layers during our cold winter months, and this chunky wool poncho promises to be a cosy little number.
Simone's pattern uses Drops Nepal, an aran weight wool/alpaca mix which comes in 50g balls and 31 lush shades (you can see all the colours on the drops website here). She uses "light beige" as her main colour, but I've chosen "light grey green" for mine. I also decided on a slightly different approach for the colour mix too - I've gone for mostly cool shades of blue and green with a few hot colours thrown in for good measure.
Now lets chat about the pattern. After my first look through, I simply sighed, closed the pages and put all poncho-making thoughts out of my mind. As is often the case, the start of this pattern read like absolute gibberish to me. 1FPTr? 1BPTr? What are these letters supposed to mean? It seemed way beyond my basic crochet skills.
The next day, I had another look and when nothing obvious sprang to mind I decided to use Google. I discovered that FPTr = Front Post Treble, and BPTr = Back Post Treble. I knew this was some sort of a rib stitch, but how to make my hook do these complicated rib-like things? The answer my lovelies, came to me via You Tube. I found an excellent video of a very nice sounding American lady performing Front Post Doubles (US terms here) and Back Post Doubles. I watched the video three times, then decided it maybe wasn't quite so tricky after all.
I won't even begin to explain how to make this rib pattern, you just need to go to the video and all will be shown to you in clear, visual detail. But I can tell you it is much easier than you would first assume, and it produces a really deliciously squidgy, bouncy, stretchy bit of crochet which looks and feels more like knitting. It's marvelous! I LOVE crochet rib!!!
So back to the colours. I've got this lovely Light Grey Green as my main colour, it looks quite grey here in the photos but in real life it's a lovely, soft greyish duck-egg blue colour. After much deliberation with my other colour choices, I decided to leave out the Dark Grey Green (middle row, second from right) and the Olive Mix (bottom row, far right).
I've also decided against giving my poncho a tassel fringe, which means I am able to increase my colourful rows. I'll have to see how it grows, but at the moment I'm aiming for roughly 22 granny rows (the original pattern has 16), with a couple of rows for some sort of an edging.
I've got my main colour (Light Grey Green) plus ten other colours....
Pistachio : Denim Blue : Royal Blue : Forget-Me-Not : Medium Blue
Grey/Purple : Purple Mix : Cerise : Orange Mix : Deep Red
I've arranged them into a pleasing stripe order and I'm now keeping my fingers crossed that it's going to turn out ok.
The yarn is good to work with, it's a fairly robust aran weight yarn worked on a 7 mm for the cowl (although I used 6.5 as I didn't have a 7 mm) and then a 6mm for the main body of the poncho. It's not mega-soft (it is quite woolly!) but I keep trying the cowl on to make sure I can cope with it near my skin and it feels very warm and pretty ok around my neck.
I'm really sorry about these poor photos, but by the time I came home from school this afternoon the light was fading fast. But I wanted to give you an idea of how it's coming along....
....I'm enjoying this woolly hooky very much and it makes a great portable project to take out and about in my bag now that my Cosy blanket is quite a size.
It's not often that I have two projects on the go at the same time, I'm rather enjoying the variety. It's the Spice of Life and all that...
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muito lindo gostaria que me enviasse o video pois tenho problema agradeço atenciosamente denise abreud visao e gostaria de acompanhar passo a passo
Posted by: denise abreu luz | May 02, 2020 at 05:49 PM
BEAUTIFUL ! (I found your part II first, then came to part I) Your project is beautiful. I just finished a very easy crochet blanket for my granddaughter. Now her mother wants something...say, a cape? a poncho? Yikes! All of the patterns look way too hard for me. Your project is gorgeous and inspiring. I hope I am able to find something I can complete for her.
Posted by: Dawn Rae | January 01, 2018 at 08:09 PM
Hellocan i get a video of this design of pouncho ..or clear images ..thanks kindly reply
Posted by: Shikha | November 17, 2017 at 08:55 AM
Please can you give me the pattern as I have been sesrching for this for weks now and i can really find the magazine. Can you kondly send me the pattern please thanks.
Posted by: Shaila | March 07, 2017 at 11:18 PM
Is dit patroon ook in Nederlandse beschrijving?
Posted by: Mirjam teering | October 12, 2016 at 09:43 PM
Hi, does anyone have any advice about using DK with this? I cannot get Aran weight where I live and stuck with DK but really want to make it.
Posted by: Clair | September 29, 2016 at 09:27 AM
Can someone help me with this pattern immediately a pensioner and have not the paying facilities my money is to little please and thank-you.
Posted by: marlene Norman | June 05, 2016 at 08:42 AM
Si alguien tuviera el patron completo, con las instrucciones desde el cuello hasta la terminacion lo agradeceria...Vivo en Argentina.
Posted by: Griselda | May 17, 2016 at 01:39 PM
Thank you so much for posting this pattern - I just love it. Thank you one again
Posted by: BARBARA SINCLAIR | March 01, 2016 at 02:45 AM
How do I get this pattern?
Posted by: Melissa | December 19, 2015 at 05:48 AM
I'm so glad that I found you link is there any way that I can get the pattern. I really want to make this for my daughter.
Posted by: Gloria Vivero | December 09, 2015 at 04:27 PM
I just finish
but now I don't know how to do for blocking
thank you very much
Posted by: anabela agostinho | November 11, 2015 at 02:47 PM
I just comme to finish but for the cowl is a double or a treble? because in de magasin its a treble but in the video is a double but us terms its the same?
thanks
Posted by: anabela agostinho | October 27, 2015 at 07:55 AM
To the ladies looking for the edging: it is on Lucy's Cowl-neck Poncho :: ta dah!
http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2014/12/cowl-neck-poncho-ta-dah.html
Posted by: Lorraine Blakey | September 09, 2015 at 11:46 AM
Is dit patroon ook in het nederlands
Posted by: Truus de Jong | September 03, 2015 at 08:55 PM
Oh I'm glad I'm not the only one, written patterns share the hell out of me! But you encourage me to go have a try.. I also bought the pattern via Ravelry because I loved it so much!
Posted by: Naiyaru | August 31, 2015 at 02:04 PM
I have paid for the actual written patterm but would love a tutorial VIDEO on making it.
Posted by: D Rice | August 26, 2015 at 12:59 PM
Has anyone seen a YouTube or other VIDEO on making this COWL NECK PONCHO?
Posted by: D Rice | August 26, 2015 at 12:56 PM
Och...wow this looks great!
Posted by: Bianca | July 06, 2015 at 08:23 AM
I have been admiring your finished product for months now (in a different post) and am on the verge of buying the pattern from Ravelry. I was considering buying the DROPS Nepal yarn; I've never tried it before and thought this would be the perfect project to try something new and lovely. However, I read in this post that's it's a pretty heavy and scratchy (?) wool. I really want a soft poncho :) Can you recommend another yarn that would be fabulous for this pattern? Thanks in advance!
I'm such a fan of your blog and am so grateful that you share your creativity with us!
Posted by: Theresa | April 22, 2015 at 07:24 PM
Hi, Was looking for the edging the you had done on this poncho but it seems to have disappeared. I have done a fringed one for myself and am now doing a small one in DK for my grandaughter and didnt want to put fringes on it. Can you provide a link to your edging please.
Posted by: christine | February 10, 2015 at 10:55 PM
When I looked at the blog a day or so ago, there were pictures of an edging you attached instead of fringe. Now, the blog stops before it gets to the edging. Is there a way to see the edging again?
Also, I am in the US and have heard that this poncho pattern is now available on Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cowl-neck-poncho-3). I have the magazine so have not tried to buy just the pattern but that might be an option for people who cannot get the magazine.
Posted by: Donna H | January 30, 2015 at 10:25 PM
I can't find this magazine anywhere would love to do the ribbed cowl neck poncho HELP!!!!!
Posted by: Emma Brown | January 18, 2015 at 07:59 PM
Thank you for the link to the video. Before this I was really struggling to understand the stitch
Posted by: hayley | January 12, 2015 at 05:04 PM
Hi. ..so sad... I am in South Africa and this poncho pattern is just not available here..
Posted by: Doreen Hill | January 09, 2015 at 07:00 AM