Braids galore

I've started work on my first personal knitted item in quite a while. I've been tied up preparing and conducting classes and so haven't had much to share (except that in pulling material for my cotton spinning class, I found my long last tahkli spindle - yea!!). What spinning I've been doing has been for gifts that I don't want to post for fear the recipient will see it. So that's left me very little to post.

Now, however, I've got a really fun design project going on. It's a cabled poncho that is going to have a pointed front and a square or rounded back (haven't made up my mind just yet on that part. 

It will also have a wide-ish cabled edging around the outside to finish it off. 

I've used the chunky braided cable up the middle and a narrower stepped braided cable up either side of the middle braid. 

I am really pleased with the way it's laying out. 

This is actually the second version. I got about halfway to this size with my initial attempt and didn't like it at all. It didn't lay right and I just wasn't happy so out it all came and, using lessons learned, I came up with this. 

If you're wondering about the safety pin, I'm using it to keep track of which side of my braided cable I'm twisting.