Lana Grossa Poncho Cape Knitting Pattern

Lana Grossa Poncho in Gomitolo Puno

What is Being Made

This is a knitted poncho designed as Design 18 from Filati Tücher & Co. The finished poncho measures approximately 52 cm wide by 70 cm long and is constructed as a flat rectangular piece that is folded and seamed to create the poncho silhouette. The garment features a decorative lace border along one edge and is completed with a garter stitch body and finishing rows.

Techniques Used

The poncho is worked using a bottom-up construction method, beginning with a cast-on of 94 stitches. The piece is worked flat on straight needles rather than in the round, allowing for row-by-row construction. The design incorporates lace patterning along the border, worked from a stitch chart, combined with garter stitch for the main body. The finished piece is seamed during finishing: the top edge is folded and sewn over 35–40 cm, leaving 30–35 cm open to create the neckline opening. This seaming technique transforms the flat rectangle into a wearable poncho shape.

Stitches Used

• Garter stitch: The primary stitch throughout most of the poncho, created by knitting every row on both right-side and wrong-side rows, producing a textured, reversible fabric
• Lace border stitches: Includes yarn overs (yos) and decreases worked according to a provided stitch chart, creating an openwork decorative edge
• Knit stitches and yarn overs: The lace border combines basic knit stitches with yarn overs to create the lace pattern; wrong-side rows of the lace section are worked entirely in knit stitches

Materials and Gauge

The poncho requires 300 grams of Lana Grossa Gomitolo Puno yarn in the colorway Rapeseed/Melon (color 05). This yarn is composed of 75% cotton, 15% Merino wool, and 10% baby alpaca, with a yardage of 600 meters per 150 grams. The recommended needle size is 4 mm. The working gauge is 18 stitches and 36 rows over 10 x 10 cm in garter stitch on size 4 mm needles. Achieving this gauge is essential for the poncho to reach its intended finished dimensions.

Construction Details

After casting on 94 stitches, the knitter works rows 1–28 once according to the lace border chart, then repeats rows 17–28 continuously until the piece measures approximately 140 cm from the cast-on edge. The lace border is worked over the first 24 stitches of each row, while the remaining 70 stitches are worked in garter stitch. At row 17 of subsequent repeats, 3 stitches are bound off at the beginning of the row. Once the desired length is achieved, the piece is finished with 6 rows of garter stitch before binding off all stitches. The completed rectangle is then pinned to measurements, blocked, and all yarn ends are carefully woven in before seaming.