Sometimes I like a little crochet. So when I saw the Floral Summer Mini Poncho in Stitch Diva’s “Wraps to Knit and Crochet” I thought “Why not?” (My daughters had several answers to that which included the words “Hippie” and “macrame plant hanger” but sometimes I just smile and do what I want anyway)
I figured that since: A) Crochet is quick and B) Surely I had suitable yarn in my stash, well, what a terrific way to give my summer wardrobe some pop! A quirky little piece to throw on over a tank top when I run to the grocery store or to wear over a sundress for impromptu summer parties…
Okay, as the family pointed out, I don’t do much of the grocery shopping (tho they were pleased to hear I was going to start) and I do not own a sundress and we don’t seem to throw or go to many summer parties, impromptu or otherwise, but you get the idea.
My first stash dive for yarn yielded nothing I seriously considered using. I was avoiding wools and anything variegated. Everything else was either the wrong weight of yarn or the wrong color or simply not enough. Then, I widened my search to our Pelagia Finer Arts boxes and came up with several skeins of hemp in a summery color I can only call Burnt Orange. Anyone here remember kitchen appliance in Burnt Orange? If so, you will understand why I thought this would make a groovy summer poncho!
The hemp held double (as required) was less fun to crochet than I had anticipated. And I had to mess around with hook sizes to get anything close to the right gauge — and even then I decided to add some repeats of the motif to make the poncho wide enough to drape effortlessly off my shoulders. And with the size K hook I ended up using, the Triple Treble stitches were looking decidedly stringy. I started and re-started, hoping my technique would improve, but by the time I had worked through the first few rounds I could hardly tell the flower motifs were flower-shaped. The whole thing was limp and stringy. And I had to admit that I had never been really crazy about the color.
So, I ripped it out — making a tangled mess that took a while to wrangle back into two reasonable balls of yarn.
And I went back to the yarn stash. This time I searched through the bin of “yarns with enough yardage for large projects” even tho this was not a large project — clearly, sacrifices would have to be made.
Enter Astral: The Alpaca Yarn Company’s lux Alpaca/Merino/Tencel yarn in a shiny purple-y chocolate color. Once again I began to crochet. The stitches were much better and the yarn was easier to work. The Triple Treble Clusters were, admittedly, puffy, but better that then stringy, I figured. I finished the first round. So far, so good. Worked the second round, the third round. The flower motifs were more recognizable tho, admittedly, rather densely packed. And perhaps the piece was a bit bulkier than I had hoped it would be…and darker…but I told myself it would transition nicely into Fall.
It was while I was stretching it out on my lap wondering how much I could open up and flatten the piece with blocking that I realized that it was twisted. Twisted into a useless möbius. Somewhere when “joining being careful not to twist” I had twisted. Or maybe — in some way understood by better crocheters than I — I had managed to inadvertently twist it on a subsequent row. Crap.
It was at this point that I realized that the poncho I held in my hands was not only not a poncho (and never would be), but that it was the antithesis of the poncho I had intended to make. It was not light and airy, not cool and quirky. It bore more resemblance to a fur stole than to a macrame plant hanger.
I tore it out. Or tried to. The yarn, held double and chained on itself, bonded the two strands together in so many spots that I had to give up.
This time I did not return to the stash. I decided that I need the right yarn for the project and could see that the I did not own the right yarn. Except that I did. The KnitPicks Lindy Chain I was using for my linen/cotton top would be ideal. I chained some up and it looked beautiful! And when I went to the website, I found it was even on sale! Terrific! Except that the lighter colors I was considering were not available until September. That would seriously hinder the summery aspect of my poncho. When I found myself seriously contemplating the chocolate shade that was nearly identical to the Astral I had just rejected on the grounds of color (as well as its being too heavy and dense and twisted into a useless möbius, of course), I decided that I had to look elsewhere.
Which brought me to Shibui Linen — a chain yarn much like Lindy — in a light gold shade called Caffeine that made my heart race. The right yarn. Far Out!