FashBlog.com

by Christina VanGinkel

Crochet has been a favorite hobby of mine for as far back as I can recall. I was taught how to create a simple chain by one of my older brother's wives. I was probably about eight or nine years old. Through the years, I have crocheted everything from doilies to dolls. Last fall, I ended up crocheting approximately two dozen ponchos in various sizes for friends and family. Most of them were for younger girls, but a few were for older teenagers. I made most of them out of a 4-ply yarn, though a few were made of specialty yarns in various weights and finishes.

The pattern I used for each one though was simply a variation of one a friend borrowed to me. I simply altered the size of the finished poncho by either increasing or decreasing the first round, and alternating the number of rows depending on the girl that was going to be wearing it. Colors also varied from single colored ones, to variations including solids mixed with variegated yarns. The single colored ones were obviously the easiest ones to make, and surprisingly, the most sophisticated looking ones. One of the teenage girls who I ended up making two for, after seeing her younger sister's, goes to a private school, where a dress code is in effect. All tops worn during class must be of a solid color. She chose a black and a pink one. The school is in an older building and the classrooms can be a bit cold in the middle of winter. The ponchos were the perfect cover-up for her to wear.

With fall approaching again, I had assumed that last year's requests would be a one-time thing. Styles come and go, and as popular as ponchos were last year, I never thought they would once again be on the popular list. Well, I was wrong. Requests have started coming in, and several of them are even from the girls themselves who received the ponchos last year as gifts. Why, I wondered, are they such a popular clothing item? One reason being, I think, is that they were popular across a wide age range, from the littlest toddlers to young adults. Oftentimes, a fad is appropriate only for a very specific age group, while ponchos transcend themselves over a huge age ratio. In addition, the styles of them are almost as varied as the age range. With ponchos available in a wide range of fabrics and yarns, even threads, each girl in a classroom could be wearing a poncho, and not two would be alike, so varied are the actual designs.

If you are headed out to do some school shopping for a girl heading back to school this fall, whether they be in early elementary, middle school, high school, or even packing up and heading off to college, a poncho or two would be the ideal fall cover up to send them off with. Grab a few in different colors and fabrics, even get a friend to make a one-of-a-kind poncho, and your student will be forever grateful for recognizing what a cool, fun accessory a poncho can be!