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Poncho Schematics For Roz's Poncho.

These are general schematics for Roz's poncho. There are no dimensions; they just give you an idea about this poncho. You will also find assembly instructions.

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Back:

To knit the back, you cast on at the hem. Knit, shaping both sides at the rate indicted in the pattern until you reach the shoulder. The shoulder is indicated by a horizontal rule in the row/stitch table. In the picture to the right, the beginning of the shoulder is the "kink" in the diagonal line on the left side. When you reach the shoulder, you suddenly reduce stitches very rapidly. Then you bind off all the stitches for the neck.

If you have knit many sweaters, you will recognize that the shoulder shaping is similar to shoulder shaping on sweaters. However, the rate of reduction at the shoulder will seem slow compared to shoulder bind offs on sweaters. This is because the poncho piece will be rotated when worn. You will see this in a later schematic.

When you finish knitting this first back piece of the poncho, it will look as pictured to the right.

You will then knit a mirror image of the piece pictured at right. Sew the two pieces together along the center back matching points c-d on the two pieces to form the whole back.

Hand knitters: You can make this piece too. However, your busy little minds are probably already thinking: Why not knit it in one piece? Well, you can, just cast on stitches for both back pieces, place a stitch marker in the center, then decrease along the center and the back!

Information the program will tell you about this piece:

The width of the top of the trapezoid. I have labeled this labeled this "neck" and runs between points b and c.
The length of the diagonal from c to d. Actually, you specify this length when designing.
The width of the hem from a to d.
The slant of the shoulder, labeled gamma.
The flare angle, alpha ,indicated at the center back and the side of the poncho.

Front:

The front is pictured to the right. It looks exactly like the back except the neck is lowered. Note that if you specify no shortening of the front neck diagonal, the front will look exactly like the back. I advise lowering the front neck when you make a sweater will a very small amount of flare, otherwise the neck may choke you.

To knit the front, you cast on and work exactly like the back until you reach the neck, which I labeled point "e". The row/stitch sheet will tell you the row/stitch count of the row just before "e", and then give you detailed shaping directions after "e".

After you reach "e", you begin to reduce rapidly to shape the front neck line. This is very similar to V neck shaping on a sweater. However, the neck will seem more shallow than on a sweater.

You will make one front piece shaped like the picture and then one mirror image of the one in the picture. When you assemble, sew the two fronts together along the diagonal line labeled e-f.

I have indicated a "chevron angle" alpha (a) on the picture. (I can't seem to get greek symbols in HTML!) To see this angle, examine the far right hand side of the picture. The included angle between a vertical line and the shaped diagonal seams is "alpha". I drew an alpha of about 20 degrees in the picture.

The shoulder dart angle is "gamma". That's shown near the "b" and is also measured from the vertical up the the diagonal shoulder shaping line.

Information the program will tell you about this piece:

All information shared with the back piece.
The amount you have shortened the front diagonal.

Whole Poncho:

The whole poncho is illustrated at the right. For purposes of illustration, I have drawn a very wide stumpy poncho.

The front is shown lying on top of the back. Note that both the front and back neck form V's. The back neck forms an angle alpha from the horizontal. This happens when the two back pieces are rotated and sewn along the diagonal. The depth of the back neck in indicated with the abbreviation "bnd".

The front neck drops more deeply than the back. This is due to the shaping. The front neck depth is indicated with the abbreviation "fnd".

Notice the angle "beta" illustrated above the left shoulder. This is the angle the shoulder will make from the horizontal. The program will tell you the value for your poncho. Right now, I have coded a default angle of 10 degrees. People's shoulders tend to slope down a bit.

The poncho program is designed so that the shoulder kink occurs when the poncho is as wide as your shoulders. Due to rounding, the poncho shoulder width may be a little big larger than your actual shoulder width. Your shoulder width is one of the design parameters you are asked in specify; it is illustrated at the bottom of the schematic.

The width at the hem is indicated on the poncho. I haven't programmed the page to tell you that value yet.

Information the web page provides:

The front neck depth and the back neck depth.
The neck width.
The total head opening. This is not illustrated. You would determine it by measuring the top of the back trapezoid and the front trapezoid, adding and multiplying by two. It is almost equal to the 4 times the width of the top of the back trapezoid, but differs a bit because the front trapezoid is a little longer.
The width of the shoulders (that you enter.)
The shoulder angle beta.
The value of the side flare. On this style poncho, this is equal to (2 alpha).

Assembly:

To assemble your poncho, you will sew the two fronts together along the center line, matching points e-f on the two pieces. Sew the two backs together matching c-d, and seam. Lie a front onto of the back as indicated in the schematic to the right. Seam along a-b.

Then apply a neck treatment of your choice. (I don't suggest anything in particular. You can just add several rows of stockinet, add a tall ribbing, etc. anything you like.) Add a hem treatment. Then sew the final side shut.

Comments on poncho fit and necklines.

I have added a red line to the poncho picture. The red line illustrates how the poncho would look if it were a simple 4 piece trapezoid poncho with no shoulder shaping, but the same value of "alpha" as in the picture shown.

Notice that the poncho would be angled very, very steeply at your shoulders. If you wore a poncho with that type of shaping, the poncho would rest on your shoulders where ever it managed to be as wide as your shoulders. If the neck were a stiff fabric, it would form a cone around the neck. I call this "coning". Because knit fabric collapes, the neck tends to bunch. So, other people describe this as "bunching". Some who make these ponchos and want to sell the poncho, tell you it's a design feature and all ponchos are that way. (They usually know it's a mistake and stop making these.) Other people just call it "icky" and, if they are a knitter, they unravel the whole poncho.

Because I drew a particularly stumpy poncho, with a very small value of alpha, notice that in this case illustrated, the hem of the poncho would rest on your shoulders! The knitted neck above your shoulders would collapse down around your neck. I've never seen someone design a poncho quite as bad as that! But... let me just say.. that the reason Roz asked me to write this program is that she got some directions for a 4 trapezoid poncho.... and she wanted to make it very slim with a nicely fitted neck....and the neck coned up around her neck very unattractively. She unraveled the whole thing!

You are probably thinking... but I've seen 4 trapezoid ponchos, and they are just fine. Yes, you have. Some are just fine. People make them. They love them. Their friends imitate them. Then someone decides to modify the pattern "just a little".

So, when do ponchos cone excessively? They cone excessively when the side angle (2 * alpha in this picture) is small and/or the neck width is small.
The side angle is small when a person wants to make a fairly slim fitting poncho. Not stupendously slim mind you, just what I call slim on my poncho page. (Look at the teal one here; it's officially "slim".) They don't cone excessively if you make a poncho with very wide flare, look at the hot pink one here. I call that one "wide".

What if the poncho flare is intermediate? Poncho's will never wide nearly off-the-shoulder neck. What's to cone? People often make wide necks and add a turtle neck collar to stay warm. I've seen some sexy lace ponchos with nearly off the shoulder necks. These are alluring when you wear them over a lycra sex-in-the sity type dress underneath. Va-va-va-voom!

As for me (and Roz) we both wanted a slim poncho with a small neck. Actually.. you do too.... Don't you. Knit this one. It's not any harder to knit this than to knit the geometrically simpler poncho. Writing the program was more involved... but it's written, isn't it? :) To draft you poncho, visit
Roz's Poncho.

Lucia