Open Weave Poncho

This was probably the first wearable that I ever crocheted. And as I pulled it out of the closet last weekend, I thought I should definitely post about it. The WORLD should see it I thought- not really because it's so fabulous but because this particular wearable has a story that many can probably learn from. This will be more of an inspirational posting - all that jazz. Here it is in all it's glory as of last weekend:

And here it is in all its glory when I first made it and then promptly hid it away in my closet because something just wasn't "right" about it (please disregard the general cornball quality of the photo you are about to see, and if you don't know that the Harris Sisters are cornballs by now, I apologize):

In this instance, I had followed the pattern exactly as written (only substituting the yarn) and it just didn't come out looking like something that I wanted to wear - it didn't seem finished. BUT because I had substituted the yarn, frogging it would have been nearly impossible.

And I procrastinated a bit (as crocheters are known to do),  finally decided to add a collar, and then came away with something that I liked.

I used 2 skeins of Paton's Divine yarn (the color is called Frosted Green, although it looks more like aqua).

When I made this poncho, I used the free crochet pattern that was originally posted on Craftster. It seems as though the creator has since modified the pattern on her blog to adjust the second part to fewer stitches (which is why mine came out with such a large neck opening and then prompted me to add the collar). All links to this pattern (original and current) can also be found on Ravelry.

So, if you're interested in making this particular poncho the way I did, follow the Craftster pattern exactly as written and when you're finished, sc in each st around the neck opening, followed by two more rows of dc and then finishing with a row of sc, decreasing as necessary in the second, third, and final rows to achieve the desired size. I believe I used a smaller hook for the collar - Paton's Divine can take a hook as small as a J, so it is likely that I used that size.

So, the moral of this story is twofold 1) if you have finished an entire pattern and then decided you don't quite like it, see if there is anything you can do to that pattern before you completely give up hope. Here, adding a quick collar saved the whole thing. 2) the Harris Sisters are cornballs.