I'm pretty ridiculously pleased with the way that this poncho turned out (raveled here). It was so very quick to make too, which surprised me as it is a full-size wearable garment. I've knitted cardigans before and - for me - those take months to do! This was done in a few days during the school holidays.

It's a really simple pattern and usually I find that a bit annoying because it can get boring, but the granny stitch worked up really nicely and the repetition was enjoyable because it was so easy to pick up and put down in between kids activities. As it got bigger it was harder to "just pop in my bag" so it had to stay at home, but I imagine that smaller ones would be much easier to cart about if you had to go wait at school or some other activity. The pattern is by Simone Francis, from Simply Crochet issue 25, and can be found on ravelry here.

Oh, and I learnt a new stitch! Crochet rib! Most pleased. Here you can see it on the reverse, because the cowl neck bit is turned the wrong way round so that when it folds down, you see the nice and neat "right side". Clever. Isla chose the colours for herself when we ordered online for another project. This particular range of colours is so out of my comfort zone but I wanted to use what I had without buying more, so this is what I came up with. It's quite cheerful and I think the grey tones it down a bit. I'd love to do one in sea glass colours of blue and mint greens but really, how many ponchos does one person need? ("All of them" is the most appropriate answer here, I think.)

I tried out Paintbox Yarns (mostly because I love the design of the ball band). I found them to be very similar to Stylecraft Special DK yarn, but with a few undyed bits here and there which would be more noticeable in a smaller project. I'm  not sure I'd notice the difference between the two yarns if they were the same weight, side by side. The colours are different, though, which is nice if you're trying to get out of the Stylecraft Special colour palette.

Next up, a mini version for Isla! There's plenty of yarn left over from this poncho, so it'll have to be put to good use. Poor girl, I'm not sure what she's going to think of matching "mama and me" outfits. We'll have to check schedules before leaving the house!
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