Clement Canyon Poncho Crochet-Along Week 2: Handy Tips for Keeping Count!

Let’s start at the beginning. If you are like me, you read the first instruction: “Chain 196” and decided maybe this was a horrible idea. Never fear, I have a few ideas to help with this initial stumbling block.

For those of you with Apple smart phones, there is a wonderful free fiber artists’ helper app called iStitchCounters. (Please share below if you have an alternative app for phones other than Apple!) I love this app because you open a project, open a new counter and start swiping. As I chained to 196, every time I finished 10 chains, I swiped right 10 times. You can choose any increment that suits you, I found that I could get through about 10 chains before one of my 4 family members interrupted me or my Netflix distracted me. Of course you can use any digital or manual counter you have, but I will explain why I went with this app this time around. Read on!

Once I had swiped right (swiping right increases the number) all the way up to 196, I then swiped left to decrease. As I single crocheted 195 times for my first row, after each 10, I swiped left 10 times and repeated until my number was 1. This totally worked! I had the exact right amount number of chains AND single crochets! I confess, usually when I finish a very long beginning chain/row combination I am short and I cheat by doing 2 single crochets in a chain towards the end until I have the correct number! Using this technique felt like a miracle because I ALWAYS have to start over my projects multiple times before I do it correctly!

If this feels like too much technology and swiping and interruption, I have another technique! I learned this from my aunt who is a fiber MASTER. As you chain to 196, do the best you can counting as you go, and then when you get to the end, instead of going back and counting each chain to 196, just add as many chains as you like for a little padding. Add 10 if you want! Add 20! It doesn’t matter. As you finish your 195th single crochet on your first row, you will see a little tail of extra chains. These are easily unlooped back to your starting chain. Just make sure that your initial slip knot isn’t too tight to unpick. Once you have unpicked the extra stitches to the point 195th single crochet in your first row, tighten up that tail and weave it in later.

Since we are crocheters here, I’m not sure if you have heard of “2^nd sock syndrome!”, but I want to talk about that next.  I confess, I have yet to KNIT socks but of course I have crocheted a pair—so maybe you ARE familiar with this syndrome. You finish one beautiful side of a 2-identical-sides project and completely lose steam and never finish the 2^nd side!  I fear this may happen to me with this poncho, so I have decided to work on both sides together the entire time.  I am going to finish my initial chain and color A section, and then put it down and start on the 2^nd rectangle, repeating what I just finished.

I am doing this for a few reasons:

1. Tension! I want my tension to be consistent with both sides, and I believe especially STARTING somewhat simultaneously will help the two sides be more consistent.
2. I don’t want to have to relearn the pattern and process all over again when I get to the second rectangle. I think if I go back and forth from side to side, my brain will hurt less and my enjoyment will be increased.

The poncho I am making is using the yarn from “The Pantone” kit. We called it this because it is inspired by Pantone 2016’s colors of the year: Rose Quartz and Serenity.

How do you get through the millions-of-chains beginning of a project? What colors are you using for your poncho? Why did you choose them?  Let me know below in the comments or in our Ravelry group forum!