Design a Knitted Shawl/Poncho

A family member asked for a poncho for her birthday, so I went online to search for a pattern. Although there are a lot nice patterns, I couldn't find the one I really liked. So, it was time to design my own. I thought I'd share with you how I've designed my own poncho and how easy it really is.

I came across this great idea to knit a combined shawl/poncho in Teach Yourself Visually Knitting Design. It's basically a rectangular shawl, 52 inches long by 18 inches wide. To make it into a poncho you put buttons down the front edges (see the attached picture). I decided to make my neckline 24 inches and space out 5 button holes the 14 inches down each side of the top front. For this shawl/poncho I'm creating button holes on each side, so that I can put in double-sided buttons that she can remove if she wants to.

I'll be using a heavier wool that calls for 88 stitches to make an 18 inch wide shawl. For simplicity's sake I've rounded my pattern up to 90 stitches. The shawl will be knit from end to end, rather than lengthwise.

Now comes the fun part. Creating a pattern. I decided to go with two patterns - a leaf vine around the top and a repeated Box Stitch for the rest of the shawl/poncho. This is where you can put your own personal stamp on your project. There are lots of great online libraries of stitch patterns online. Here's a couple of them:

Knitting on the Net

Knitting Pattern Central

Once you've designed your pattern (being careful to make sure the repeats match the number of stitches you have - for me that would be 90), it's time to pick your yarn and needles. For my shawl I've picked a worsted weight and I'll be using Size 11 (8 mm) knitting needles a my recipients wants a poncho to keep her warm in the winter. It's your choice, just make sure you match the gauge to the pattern you create.

Happy knitting.