Poncho Mania

When Martha Stewart stepped off the plane wearing her new "Coming Home" poncho, http://majorknitter.typepad.com/photos/patterns/marthas_poncho.html knitters and crocheters went wild. I knew I had to knit one! Luckily for us all, Lion Brand soon came up with patterns for both knit and crochet versions of a similar garment. http://www.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/patternFinder.fcgi?search=Search&searchText=martha+poncho&x=3&y=12 I knitted mine from Lion Brand Homespun Baroque. On a roll I then knitted another one in Homespun Metropolis for my best friend. http://cache.lionbrand.com//yarns/homespun.htm One note on Homespun Metropolis, I needed an extra skein of yarn, one more than the pattern specified for the poncho. This is because Metropolis seems to be heavier than some of the other Homespuns, and therefore you get less of it by length in the skein (most odd - however the weight is the same).

Other yarn manufacturers also came up with a free pattern http://www.interweave.com/knit/events/freedom_poncho_pf.asphttp://www.herrschners.com/pdfs/MatchMarthasPoncho.pdf

Still having the poncho bug, I looked at other patterns on the web site and knitted several Pretty Ponchos http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/khs-prettyPoncho.html?noImages= (without the hoods which I didn't like) in various shades of Homespun, one in Lion Brand Jiffy (Denver) The red stripey Homespun took the blue ribbon in its class at a local country fair, much to my delight. Then for a local fund-raiser I knitted several with all sorts of odd wool donated for the purpose! If you are familiar with the diagonal baby blanket pattern you will know that this particular poncho is knitted in a similar way - from corner to corner (with a hole in the middle for the head!) It's really quick and easy. I would recommend it for a first time poncho diva!

My latest poncho - hot off the needles this week has been finished using the Lion Brand free Colorwaves poncho pattern http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/kcw-poncho.html?noImages= in a very nice shade of sunset red. http://cache.lionbrand.com//yarns/colorWaves.htmlhttp://cache.lionbrand.com/cgi-bin/yarnInfo.cgi?yarnPageIndex=1