The Stegatortoise

This fun crochet project idea was shared by my friend Joann. The "Stegatortoise" is well protected against potential predators! 😂

Slytherin-By-the-Sea poncho for Rose

Here's a cozy garment stylish enough that even Bellatrix Lestrange herself might wear it! Our friend Rose was sorted into Slytherin House, but when she isn't away studying at Hogwarts, she lives in the chilly, foggy Bay Area ... hence she needed a Slytherin-By-the-Sea poncho to keep her cozy.

I started this project working the same as the Sheep Wagon Shawl but joined to work in the round after row 46 to produce a poncho instead of a wrap.

At the join, I worked another "spine" in the same manner as established between the other stockinette sections to make the join basically invisible and to provide another place for increasing the stitch count.

Since you don't turn your work anymore after joining to work in the round, I continued to emulate the Sheep Wagon Shawl stitch pattern by knitting all rounds and increasing on every-other round. Stockinette without the purling! W'hoo!!

After knitting about 94 total rows/rounds, I used a stretchy knitted cast-off but didn’t break the working yarn. I then continued working with a 5.5 mm crochet hook in the bottom loops of the knitted cast-off edge to crochet the lace edging from Kim Guzman's Cinnamon Fling to give the poncho a lovely finish. To work the lace edging in the round requires a stitch count in a multiple of 15; this poncho has 390 stitches around the hem.