Trial and Error

Sometimes you just have to keep trying until something works.  That's been especially true with the edging for the poncho.  I don't think I've ever had such a time with a design.

I started the edging with an I-cord that was supposed to be the outside edging but as I worked it, I realized that it was pulling in on that side so that would need to be the side attached to the body.  Fine, no problem.  That would give a nice flow from the body to the edging.

I did a light block on the body and as I worked the edging, I would lay the edging around to see how close I was to getting it long enough.  When I got close to what I thought was the finish, I started attaching the edging to the body so I could knit to the very end and have a nice tight finish.  But when I  got to the end of the edging, it looked like it was way short.  What?!

I thought the edging I had should have fit almost all the way around but I kept knitting, adding another 8 inches or so until it went all the way around.  Great, right?  Well, great until I tried it on and found that the edging was all wavy.  Arghhhhh!!!!!

I then had to take the edging completely off (about 110 inches of edging, by the way) and re-attach with better spacing.  Once I did that, I then had to rip out about 6 inches of the edging that I'd knit before, taking into account that I needed to make the braid from the beginning flow into the braid at the end.

Done.

Good.  Now I needed to figure out what to do with the outside edge to finish it off.  It was really rough so I decided to crochet around the edge to give it a little form but it needed something else.  I only had part of one skein of yarn left so I had to be a little careful.  As an old crocheter, if all else fails, use a shell stitch.  So that's what I did and it worked perfectly.  Here's the final product that is worth all the hassle of making sure it was right in the end.

 

Of course, it ain't over till the blocking's done.  Sometimes it makes all the difference.

It ended up being the perfect length and the perfect circumference.  Some of that was guess work and some of that was experience and some of that was pure old trial and error.

Quick update

I did a quick measure of the circumference of my poncho and I'm going to need, roughly, 110 inches (9 ft 2 in) of edging. 

I've done 16 inches. I have 3 full skeins and still probably a third of the one I'm working on. I actually feel much better now about having enough to finish. 

Wait. Forget I said that. 

By the way, for an easy way to measure things like this, I took a ball of linen yarn (so it won't be stretchy) and traced around the outside of my poncho. At the end I cut it off and then I measured the string with my metal tape measure (again so I don't have any stretch). 

Now I have the yarn to keep with my edging to measure against. I haven't fully blocked the poncho but at least this will get me close and I'll finish the edging once it's been mostly attached so that it lays right. 

The Edging (dum, dum, duuuuummmm)

I've made some progress on the braided cable poncho.

Front:

With its giant 15-stitch braid.

And the Back:

With its braided motif. The cable around the neckline is knitted but not yet stitches down, in case it doesn't look right to you.  It's not right yet but it will be.

Looks pretty far along, right?

It's actually not so far as you'd think because there is still The Edging. 

Anyone who has knitted an edging around a shawl or doily or any other article will understand the physical and psychological blow The Edging inflicts. 

You've got this whole garment which has many, many stitches and has used much yarn. In my example here, I've used 8 1/2 balls of yarn. That's over 1,000 yards of yarn. If you were a newby, you'd be thinking, "I've got this.  This is easy. Almost done."

But I am not a newby and I know that, even though my edging is narrow, the 3 1/2 balls I have left to make this edging may very well not be enough to go around the entire circumference of the poncho. 

It's just a few innocent stitches of background, a narrow i-cord to make a nice, finished edge and a simple little 6-stitch braided cable. What could be easier?

So the question to be answered is, "Will 427 yards of yarn be enough."  At this stage, it's anybody's guess. Stay tuned as the adventure continues.