Dune Poncho

I'm currently working on a poncho using Sirdar Dune at the moment. Am doing it in the beige. It's extremely easy stitch wise to do as is plain garter but am having a few problems with the needles as they are 8mm. I find that they are just a touch too large to hold them in normal pencil style so am having to do the underarm technique. Link here http://www.mavis-crafts.com/enlarge.php?source=/Patterns/images/Sirdar/8508.jpg. As this is my second post apologies if it doesn't work and thanks to Mavis Crafts for whom I purloined the link!

First Post

Got to learn how to use this properly and then start adding properly.