Hi, I’m Kathleen Dames, and this is The Knit. It’s completely free to access and read, but if you would like to support my work, please consider a paid newsletter subscription for $5 per month or $50 annually. Thank you! Your support helps me create more knitting patterns and fun content ad-free. Thank you so much.
Happy Solstice!
Turning back to the light is so very special to me, hence today’s choice of my poncho design, So Very, from the second Spring issue of Filament, where I put one of Backyard Fiberworks’s gradient kits to simple yet effective use.
The long tail of the poncho results from working one decrease at the same spot, dramatically pushing down that point. Yes, you cast on a lot of stitches to begin (work a Two-Tail Long-Tail Cast-On by creating a slip knot with the tails of two separate balls of yarn or the inner and outer ends of one cake, place the slipknot on your needle, then work a long-tail cast-on with both working yarns as the strands for your “slings shot”; don’t count the slipknot as a cast-on stitch and slide it off the needle when you subsequently come to it), but then you’re just decreasing away until it’s time for some back-an-forth garter stitch at the collar. I dreamt this design up while getting ready for my annual designer retreat to northern Vermont - we’re always having so much fun and jabbering away that I wanted a project to work where I could just knit. The previous retreat had seen me working on Winter Bride, which I love to distraction and think is spectacular but was quite complex for social knitting - all those cables!
I love the drama of this design, the fact that it’s a pretty easy knit, and that it puts 1000 yards of fingering weight yarn to good use, producing a lightweight, cozy, layering piece. Of course it would look good in a single color, but that gradient pack sure was fun to work with.
Take 50% off this and all my Advent patterns, including So Very, using code ADVENT2021 in my Payhip and Ravelry shops.
Until tomorrow…
xxoo, Kathleen