I made this pattern in pink for Christy when she was about six or seven and it was always one of my favourites.

But this poncho didn’t start out as a poncho. I had two skeins of yarn that I bought somewhere without having any particular pattern in mind. When I decided to use it my first thought was that it would make a nice shawl. So I started my standard triangular shawl; I wasn’t very far along when I decided I could come up with a better pattern so took it all apart

I went looking through my patterns and came up with a variation on a shawl – it was called a shawl poncho. It was a free pattern that I’d picked up somewhere and in the photo the shawl went over your head but it was only about shoulder length. So I started knitting but when I was finished I didn’t really like it. Since I give most of my knitting away I wasn’t sure anyone would “get” the idea of it without the photo.

That’s when I remembered the poncho that I had made for Christy. I found the pattern and started crocheting (ripping out the shawl/poncho as I went along). Because I wasn’t sure how much yarn I was going to need I made the poncho in the smallest size but when it was done I still had half a ball of yarn left.

So I moved on to making the next largest size (ripping out this second poncho as I went along). I was within a few rows of finishing the larger size when I ran out of yarn. What to do? I decided I’d tried and failed enough times already that I wasn’t starting over again. So I stopped just short of the larger size but it is a bit longer than the smaller size and I didn’t do the fringe on the bottom. I don’t often donate kids things other than hats and scarves but I think this will work in the Salvation Army Christmas baskets.