It’s been a minute since I’ve posted an update on this poncho. Mainly because I’m making my wrists sore just trying to get through miles of stockinette stitch.
I measured my progress this week and saw that I overshot the required length by about an inch. I’m putting this project in time out for a little bit before continuing.
Note: I’m moving this entry from November 2023, after making the decision to migrate back to Squarespace from Wordpress.
Casting on! I bought a WOTA kit for this Oakwood Poncho by Nikki Wagner way back in 2017. I think the warmer color ways chosen will look nice on my mostly black wardrobe.
This project features a brioche stitch, brioche bind off, and intarsia. Brioche seems like ribbing for folks who want to be ✨fancy✨. Looking forward to adding these methods to my lil repertoire.
The rest of the poncho is an ocean of stockinette, with some cute little tassels on the bottom edges. I decided to go without swatching, since there’s no real fitting necessary for this piece.
The poncho’s construction is pretty simple, too, starting from the bottom edge in the back to the front. Meaning, the novel parts of its construction will come after I’ve done a good amount of warming up with the back panel. Dope.
It was pretty insane to think that I was going to finish this in time for NaKniSweMo. A lot is on my plate already, so maybe it’s just fine to have a simple stockinette project in the WIP pile to work on instead of scrolling all day.
This ski bonnet is a stash-busting project using up my remaining Ease yarn. Lacey Volk’s striking neon hat caught me, and I wanted to try my hand at making one of my own.
I managed to make it as far as the first section, having loads of fun in the process. The last real cable project I worked on were those Charcoal Angler’s Loop Socks, so this little repeating cabling pattern was exactly what I needed to feel giddy again about the neat things knit fabric can do.
But after finishing that first portion? I got stuck. I was intimidated by the ‘pick up stitches except for 5, evenly distributed’ direction. So I left this project sitting in time-out. I plan to unearth this project this weekend to tackle that silly fear—really, they’re just a hundred or so stitches, what’s the big deal? The math? There’s hardly any!
I’m thinking, if picking up 102 stitches is scary, maybe I shouldn’t have taken on the hue shift, right? I will need to get to the massive border of that blanket eventually. So what’s the deal?
And just like that, I’m a quarter of the way through my hue shift afghan project.
Mitered squares turned out to not be too difficult to work on. I admit that this wip spent a few weeks in time-out here and there because of some absentmindedly picked-up stitches on the wrong side.
Or at one point, a completed mitered square using the wrong color combination. After those speed bumps though? Yes. This can be smooth sailing now.
Many knitters of this particular Knit Picks pattern kit suggested that I break the yarn as few times as possible to compensate for such tight yarn rations. I’m still unsure if I’m doing well on that front, but we’ll see soon enough.