Leaf poncho for Girl child

My daughter saw a wrap in one of my new yarn magazines that came in the mail. She folded down the corner of the page and when I came home from work, immediately showed me the wrap below.

She had to have it. She really wanted one of her own. I knew what she liked about it. The leaves, the ruffles and the asymmetrical way the wrap is displayed in the picture. But it is a wrap, not a poncho, and although it is great for a woman, I don't think it is practical for a 7 yr old who likes to play hard outside riding bikes and jumping in puddles. So I decided to create my own version of this warp but into an asymmetrical poncho. I also knew that I could get away with a similar leaf design that was free and just crochet the ruffles around the poncho. The results were the picture below.

She loves it and I love it. I think it turned out pretty good. My only complaint is the yarn I used. I let her pick it and it was a cheap $9 acrylic yarn (bernat worsted in Aqua) It is pretty scratchy and it took the gloss off my new knit picks 4.5 interchangable circular tips and now they are a bit rough to the feel. I am surprised because I have used Bernat before for my dolls but the Aqua seems to be really synthetic. Maybe it is the dye for the colour that makes it really rough? I have washed it once and put it in the dryer and it does feel softer but I am going to do it a few times to help soften it up a bit more. The bright side is, it cost me $9 and well, she is going to destroy it. This is a given. She is a kid and plays hard. It will also be harder to destroy because that yarn is TOUGH!! haha.

What I did to create the Asymmetrical Leaf Poncho

I found this  Leaf Afghan pattern and using just the leaf pannel I cast on for the large strip (the leaf pattern section) twice, I cast on 49 stitches, placed a stitch marker, cast on another 49 stitches and knit rows 1-24- 6 times. On row 24 I would cable 2/2 putting the last two stitches before stitch marker in front on cable holder, knitting the first two stitches after the stitch marker, then placing stitch marker back and knitting the last two stitches on cable holder and then continued with the rest of row 24. This way I had a nice little cable running up the middle. I cast off loosely and repeated the above instructions again so I had two equal pannels roughly measuring 25 inches long.

EDITED TO ADD- next time I do this I will just continue knitting for double the length and fold it in half instead of sewing the two pieces together.... DOH! Wish I had thought of that this time.... grr.

I then took my crochet hook and seamed up the sides with single crochet on the outside so it becomes part of the pattern of the poncho. 

THIS pattern has a diagram how to sew up the two pannels so it falls Asymmetrical. I left a 12 inch opening for her neck too even though she is a kid. I am glad I did. So easy and effective!

I then went along the bottom of poncho with my crochet hook and (2 dc, chain 1, 2dc, chain 1, sc in second stitch, chain 1,) repeated all the way around to give me a ruffled trim that did not rolled.

For the collar-

Round 1-single crocheted around the opening of the neck 

Round 2-  single crocheted through back loop. 

-Go to ridge created from sc in back loop, and (2 dc, chain 1, 2dc, chain 1, sc in second stitch, chain 1,) This created the ruffled look collar but didn't touch the neck. It also let the ruffles fall flat. 

She LOVES it and it was a fun easy knit with great results.

I think I want to make me one but in the Mesmeric cardigan colour work. I think I would wear it more than the sweater. I would minus out the ruffles and make it much longer and wider. I  would probably follow the measurements of the pattern I linked above demonstrating how to sew the poncho. I like the lenght of that one a lot.  So many possiblities!! 

Edited to add basic measurements to estimate the size you want-

To figure out how many stitches to cast on I measured from armpit to tip of fingers- Girl child was 21 inches and that equalled roughly to casting pattern for leaf twice (aka, 49 stitches and 49 stitches)

For how long the pannel should be the below measurements are a good guide.


 Baby-14, 15, 16, 18”

Toddler-18, 19, 20, 21”

medium child ( Girl child is a size 10/12 in kid so I went with 

25 inches) : 21, 22, 24, 25”

Teen- 25, 26, 27, 27”

Adult-: 27, 28, 31, 32”