PANDEMIC PONCHO WEEK 7 FINISHING UP

JOINING UP 

Now we are going to join the rectangles in a rather clever way to form a V-shaped poncho!

Use the diagrams below to help as well as my photos. Have a good look at the photos and the diagrams BEFORE you join!

Showing it folded in place and joined with stitch markers

Sew or crochet together 

Note the stitch markers used to join before joining

 I used plastic stitch markers as safety pins to join the rectangles and try it on before actually crocheting it together. 

Start by joining one short end to one side of a long end. 

Then you fold over the top part of the long side and fold over the short side to join this. You might need to play around until you get it right but you should end up with a triangular point on both the front and back at the bottom and a neck hole at the top.  

Once you are happy with the joined position decide how you would like the join to appear. If you don't want to see the join at all then I suggest you sew it together with a suitable cotton thread that will disappear into the yarn. 

I decided to use a contrasting colour to make a feature of the join.

You could crochet it together in number of ways. Have a little play and see which method you prefer as they all give different results. 

I have slip stitched the edges together using the back loop of the first side and the front loop of the second side - see photo below. This gives quite a flat join and you can see the stitches clearly. 

You could use all 4 loops instead of just 2. You could use Dcs to join in 2 loops or 4 loops instead of slip stitches. Don't be scared to try a few out first - the beauty of crochet is the ease with which you can try new things and pull them out again! 

THE NECK

Choose from the 'Peter Pan' style collar or  my 'V-Flap' Collar

Both methods start the same way. 

This is NOT worked in the round but worked in rows turning for each row.

1) Join yarn to one end of neck and work dcs evenly across . Turn

2) Ch3, work 1 tr in each stitch to end. Turn

3) Ch3 (counts as a BPTr), work *1FPTr around next Tr, 1 BPTr around next Tr across. Turn

4) Ch3 (counts as BPTr), work FPTrs around FPTrs and BPTrs around BPTrs to form a rib. Turn

5 ) Ch3 Repeat row 4

For the Peter Pan Collar only

If you are happy with the length of the collar as it is just weave in the ends and add a decorative button on the middle if desired. Add length by repeating row 4 as many times as you wish. 

This is the flat 'Peter Pan' collar option (make it as big as you want by adding more rows

For The V-FLAP Collar

Simply lift one side of the collar flap up and sew in place lining up with the other side of the neck. I have added a button for decoration purposes only. See photo above

 

This is the V-flap collar I have opted for with an added decorative button