Children's Shell Poncho-- Pattern Review

Hey everyone!  I told you I was going to do a write up on the poncho pattern I made recently.   The pattern is from Lorene at Cre8tion Crochet.  If you haven't checked out her site, you definitely need to.   She has so many amazing patterns you can find.    I am no way affiliated with her, I just stumbled on her blog one day while searching google and just fell in love with the beautiful things she creates!

Anyway on to this poncho pattern.  If you are looking to make something that works up super duper fast this is it!   I made both sizes but used different yarns on each one.   The S/M was with the Premier Sweet Roll yarn found from JoAnn.    The L-XL I made using the Lion Brand Mandala yarn that I found at my local Walmart.      

The pattern is cute and girly with the shells.  It was pretty easy to follow although it did take me a few reads the first time around, but once you get going it's really easy.  

The fit seems to be pretty much right on track for these two sizes.   I made the small one for my niece who is a very small 4 year old, but it fit my 2 1/2 year old son who is a little smaller than her. I was able to get through 1 Sweet Roll and a small amount into another roll.  

 


I made the Large for my 6 year old, who is just about 52" tall.  It was a little wide in the neck, but I think loose fits are expected with ponchos.  I used the Mandala yarn which is thinner, its a 3 weight, but did not adjust the hook size, so the stitches were looser and could explain the wider neck. I was really happy with the length, not too frumpy or too small.  For this size I only used 1 cake of the Mandala yarn, and still had some left over that I was able to add for an embellishment.

I added my own flower to give it a little something extra.  I'll post the pattern for that in the next few days.

If you want to make this Children's Shell Poncho visit Cre8tion Crochet to get her FREE pattern!   She also has links to purchase this pattern in Adult sizes!

Thanks for Visiting!   If you have patterns you want me to test and review, leave the links in the comment section!

Happy Crocheting!

Lion Brand Mandala Yarn

Are you curious if the new Lion Brand Mandala Yarn lives up to the hype?     Well I'm here to tell you my thoughts on it!

** Disclaimer, I am in no way affiliated with Lion Brand or Walmart.  I bought the yarn and just want to give you my honest opinion of the product and my experience.

Last week while casually strolling through the yarn isle at our local Walmart (who are we kidding I run straight there), I came across this awesome end cap!   Fellow  "yarnies" have been posting about these for weeks.   I'll be honest, I have been stalking ours for a while, but then I found out that only 500 stores had them.  Being in a very rural area I lost hope of finding any in our store, until last week!  

  

My initial thoughts were " WOW these are bigger than I thought!"   and "Sigh these colors are to DIE FOR!" and "Boy these have been pretty picked through thoroughly already!"   

 I grabbed a few and went home to try them out.    

I knew I needed to make my kids some ponchos after the one I just made for my niece and these would be perfect for them.    Here are the completed projects (I'm going to post a pattern review later on the Shell Poncho from Cre8tion Crochet)

Pattern Credit Cre8tion Crochet - Children's Shell Poncho
Lion Brand Mandala in Pheonix

Pattern, my own.  I'm still debating on writing it up.
Lion Brand Mandala in Spirit

So what are the final thoughts on the yarn?  The cakes have 590 yards to them which was more than enough for the girls poncho, and I only used half on the toddler sized boy poncho.   The Spirit (blue and grey) had some color imperfections where there was light blue specks in the darker colors, it didn't look bad but not what I was hoping for.   I still love the long color changes though, perfect for these ponchos or a blanket.   It is a 3 weight yarn which I don't love. It split easily with my hook if i wasn't paying attention, and when frogging there was a point I was ready to just cut it and take my loss because it snagged so much.   It takes longer to finish a pattern (which I get bored easily if it takes too long) even with a 6.0 mm hook.  It will be nice to wear in spring since it is thinner.   It's pretty soft and I didn't find it scratchy to touch.  The price was less than $5 at my Walmart, although it is more on the Lion Brand website (but you aren't limited on color selection).

Overall I think it was still a great buy.   Not often can you get that much yarn and beautiful colors for that great of of price.   I'm on a SAHM on a budget so I think the price point is what will bring me back to this yarn for future projects.  

Have you used this yarn?    I'd love to see your projects and know your thoughts  :)      Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @Bsquarecrochet or like my page on Facebook