poncho gone shawl-ish

I finished up the poncho I had been working on. Actually, I knit the second panel while spending time with Maxwell during his last week with us. It's a nice memory, thinking of him sitting on my lap while I knit that poncho. Which is probably the main reason, now that I think about it, that I will keep it regardless of its actual likeness to the poncho I had imagined it would be.

After I finished up the bath puppets a few days ago I decided to sew up the sides and *finish* the poncho once and for all. There were a few issues with the size and shape, it turns out, the first being that how I had conceptualized it looking and how it actually looked varied enough to get me thinking about other ways to construct it. I looked at several poncho designs and finally decided on sewing one of the edges to an end and adding buttons to the other side to give it the flexibility of being either a poncho or a shawl, depending. (I found the buttons at the Button Emporium.)

But once I had sewn it up and added the buttons, I realized it was still too big to be worn {by me} in the way I had wanted. Oh well. It still makes a lovely shawl-ish throw type garment, though, and both Eva and I have used it today to warm up. It seems actually quite appropriate for us to be using it while sitting warmly inside. I'm positive that if Maxwell were here with us today he would have found a way to wrap up in the poncho as well. It really is the perfect bit of cat knitting.



One of the buttons before I realized that idea wouldn't work. Also- the many colors. The yarns come from various sources- a few from Flock and Fiber, a few from my stash, one bought for the project and two waiting around for the perfect rainy day.



Here it is on me. See what I mean about the size, particularly on one side? The yarn is pretty heavy, which also contributes quite a bit to how it drapes. I think, though, it could be doable if I get one of those shawl holder thingies (can't think of the name). It's worth a try. I have a stitch holder keeping it together in the picture and it isn't quite strong enough.



And really, this is the best possible use for it. Here is Eva warming up with the poncho in the morning. I guess I will keep calling it a poncho, for lack of a better word. Shawl-ish is good but doesn't seem to quite roll off the tongue, at least not yet.