Mexican Lace Poncho I found Yet Another Set of Instructions for making correct gauge swatches: 1. Make a gauge swatch at least 15% of the width of your finished garment. Be paranoidly exact about everything (yarn, needles, etc). Include at least two pattern repeats in both directions. 2. Take raw swatch measurements in centimeters. 3. Wash or dry clean your swatch. I used to skip this step, but recent experiences have convinced me that this is a bad idea. Yarn does change during laundering, and some stitch patterns behave very differently once they're washed. 4. Take finished swatch measurements in centimeters. 5. Now for the truly diabolical part. Slip a small straight needle through the top of your gauge swatch. Use this to hang your gauge swatch somewhere. Then slip another small straight needle through the bottom of your gauge swatch, Guesstimate how much yarn would be included in the garment below the swatch. Thread a piece of yarn through that many skeins and hang the yarn from the bottom needle. Go away for a while. 6. Measure your hanging gauge swatch while it's still hanging. Now you have three measurements, and you can create a mathematical relationship between the hanging gauge and the raw gauge. You can also take several different hanging gauges so you can determine the gauge at the yoke versus the gauge of the lower arm, if you are knitting a design that tends to stretch lengthwise. My great-aunt Nadine was a hanging judge in Texas (and proud of it; I was afraid of her). In my bedroom at this moment, I have a hanging gauge. I did my raw gauge measurements, washed and dried my gauge swatches, and now the first of them is hanging in the manner prescribed by June Hiatt. Hanging gauge makes me feel a bit like Aunt Nadine. I have a moral stance against hanging hand-knits. They stretch, and moths can get to them more easily when hung (hanged?). I must have inherited something of Aunt Nadine's backbone (unlike her siblings, her back was ramrod straight into the 90s). I firmed up my resolve to hang that gauge swatch. In another hour, I shall measure its hung dimensions. Then, adding cruelty to capital punishment, I shall weight it. Bwhahahahaha. Well, the numbers are in: Cellular Shower Raw gauge 30 st = 9" 28 st = 6.75" 27 rows = 6" 40 rows = 8" Washed/blocked 30 st = 8.75" 28 st = 7" 27 rows = 6.5" 40 rows = 8" Hung, no weights 30 st = 9" 28 st = 7" 27 rows = 6.5" 40 rows =8.25" Hung, 1.5 ounces yarn 30 st = 8.5" 28 st = 6.5" 27 rows = 8.5" 40 rows = 10" The row gauge of the weighted swatch is significantly different. The Cellular Stitch sample gets about 30% longer when it's weighted, and the Shower Stitch sample is about 25% longer. They were hung for about an hour, so this is the sort of stretching you'd expect any time you wore the garment. I'd say that taking the gauge of a weighted sample is worthwhile for any large garment, particularly if you're not using ribbing around the bottom to help support the garment. I wanted to use a wool/silk blend for this project, but was unable to find one that felt right. I ended up using Berocco Softwist, which is 41% merino and 59% rayon, with a nice resilience, a good level of warmth, a light feel, and a lovely sheen. I did the top section in Cellular Stitch, which is an eyelet with a stitch repeat of 3. By omitting a k2 tog, adding a yarnover, and sneaking in a make-one, I almost invisibly added a whole pattern repeat at a time. I liked this better in theory than it turned out in practice, and think that raglan increases spell trouble for lace garments. In future, I think it would be better to increase the yoke as for an Icelandic sweater, with increase rounds that double the number of stitches at rounds 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, etc. After the raglan part, I switched to Shower Stitch, which is an old lace pattern that makes scalloped edges. I wanted a poncho long enough to cover me and whatever I might be carrying, so I planned it long. I hadn't decided how I was going to finish it, though, and so the finished garment ended up a tad longer than planned. I made a half dozen small test ponchos for my daughters' American Girl dolls while I was figuring out the details for this poncho. I was tired of fringe by the time I got around to finishing the real poncho, so I looked for another edge treatment. I settled on a Mexican lace edging, which is knit sideways and then sewn on. I also added it to the neck to help cover the raglan increases. As soon as I put the Mexican edging on, this became a very fancy poncho indeed. The Mexican edging was several inches long, however, and made the poncho longer than anticipated. Despite its laciness, this ponch is extremely warm and cozy, warm enough for winter wear here in California.

Copyright © 2004 by Heather Madrone. All rights reserved.