This year winter seems slow to arrive.

I am in no particular hurry for the first cold snap of the season to make it’s way to my house, and it would seem many of the trees in my yard share this sentiment as they are clinging to their leaves like a threadbare blanket that they hope will keep them warm, but won’t.

And while today’s rain brought down some of the leaves that remain, there are still quite a few waiting to drop:

So it is against this backdrop of gray sky and a panoply of browns that comprise the palette of the leaves of late fall that I began work on my current front burner project: a child’s poncho.

Drawing on an as-yet-to-be completed crochet lunchbox:

along with the addition of “flamingo” a new Red Heart Super Saver color that was not yet available when I began the lunch box project:

I set out to create a three-season poncho that could be worn in spring, summer, or fall.

The first step was to find a pattern I could use, and after sorting through dozens and dozens of options that were served up at Ravelry when I searched the pattern database for “child’s poncho,” I settled on Yolanda Soto Lopez’s Easiest Crochet Poncho.

There was something about the simplicity of the design and her delightfully straight-forward presentation that I found irresistible.

So I didn’t.

Using a 5.0 mm hook and this video, I got to work:

and in short order, I had completed thirteen rows and gotten a start on the fourteenth:

and if this poncho brings the recipient just one one-hundredth of the joy to wear it that it has brought to me to make it, it will have been well worth my time and effort.