knit and tonic

The Honeycomber

One of my favorite things about knitting is that sometimes, you can use a super-simple technique and produce an item that seems so complicated and gorgeous that you never want to give away the secret as to how simply you created it.

This is a perfect example.

This Honeycomber cap, with instructions for two different weights of yarn--fingering and sport--can be knit up in a matter of a weekend and even though it looks "complicated," it's not. Those waffle-type honeycombs are the product of slipped stitches. That is all they are: slipped stitches. No Fair Isle, no nothing. Just slipped stitches.

The second great thing about this sort of pattern, is that you'll very likely have two skeins of fingering or sport in your stash to mix up and make a Honeycomber of your own (I keep wanting to type Honey-comb-over, heh).

I hope you enjoy it! Oh, and bigger pom-poms are totally encouraged. 

This pattern includes tips on securing the pom-pom in a way that you can remove it for laundering. Tips for creating a multi-color pom-pom are included as well.

 

SIZES

Youth/Women’s Small (Average Adult)

To adjust the sizes, you can easily add or subtract a multiple of stitches at cast on.

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS

18 (21.25) [18.75 (21.25)]" circumference

YARNS

Fingering Version: Two hanks fingering yarn, 1 skein color A, 1 skein color B

Sport Weight Version: Two hanks sport weight yarn, 1 skein color A, 1 skein color B

Yarns used in samples:

Fingering Version

Color A: Rohrspats & Wollmeise (100% merino superwash / 574 yards / 150 grams): 1 skein Rittersporn (larkspur)

Color B: Rohrspats & Wollmeise (100% Merino Superwash / 574 yards / 150 grams): 1 skein Buxkranzl (box wreath)

Sport Weight Version

Color A: Madelinetosh Pashmina (75% merino superwash / 15% silk / 10% cashmere / 360 yards / 100 grams): 1 skein Glazed Pecan 

Color B: Madelinetosh Pashmina (75% merino superwash / 15% silk / 10% cashmere / 360 yards / 100 grams): 1 skein Tern

NEEDLES

Fingering Version: One 16" long circ needle and/or one set double-point needles size US 3 (3.25mm)

Sport Weight Version: One 16" long circ needle and/or one set double-point needles size US 4 (3.5mm) 

GAUGE

Fingering Version: 30 sts and 39 rnds = 4" in Honeycomb Pattern

Sport Weight Version: 24 sts and 37 rnds = 4" in Honeycomb Pattern

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Honeycombs and That Tree

We are always taking pictures in the backyard. I'm sick of the backyard. Not to mention, there are a lot of trees so if we don't hit the time just right we lose the light. After three tries in the backyard this past week, and losing the light each time (meaning, the light goes behind a tree or something), we decided we'd go to That Tree. The one right off of Kanan Road. This is a tree on a hill that, whenever we're on our way to a local restaurant or to Malibu, if we look on that hill we almost always see a photographer with a subject or two, shooting away. We even see photographers up there when it is raining.

There's a restaurant near That Tree. And because there are signs posted everywhere saying you can't park near That Tree, we thought we'd have some lunch and wait until the light was nearly just right and walk from the restaurant and up that hill and finally get some shots of this Honeycomber cap.

This is The Tree, right before we lost the light.

Yes, that's right. By the time we got up there, we lost the light! (It may have had something to do with the wine that we were lingering over. Oh well.)

And here is Girlfriend wearing the sock-weight version of the Honeycomber (right as the light went over the hill). Those are zipper pulls in her braids.

And here are the two of us cracking up that yet again, we lost the light.

The pattern is being edited. As soon as it is ready, I'll release it. Meanwhile, dream of pom poms.

BTW: Here's what happens when the photographer you're with is armed with lighting equipment and you've lost your light.

Yes, It Looks Funny When we Wear Uggs with Shorts (but Manpris are Worse).

We just returned from a short stay at my father's home in Colorado. This isn't my usual shot with the usual sunshine and the usual mis-match of sweater with bikini action, but you know. One must consider all of the people who actually have a reason to wear a cap other than:

1. Baldness

2. Coolness

3. Bad Hair

4. Roots

5. Fashion

6. My Mom Made it for me

7. My Girlfriend Made it for me

8. It's the Only Way my Toupee Stays Secure

9. Insert Another Excuse Here

I actually gave a slouch cap to HWWV to wear (he's grown facial hair and looks like an exotic what's his name, he's Irish, I think, and smokes a lot and gets drunk, too. Hmmm) while we were in the cold air, but once he got home and plopped it on in the warmer weather he announced that it itched. 

Oy. 

The same thing happens to me but when it's truly cold out, the wool doesn't bother me as much. Years ago, when we were in Lake Tahoe and it was a total blizzard I walked in knee-high snow to the LYS and marveled at how cozy the Noro mohair blend happened to be. The ladies sitting there around the table sort of looked at each other and then one muttered that there are burrs on wool that contract in the cold, so no wonder.

I swear. If I could wear fun caps in warmer temps, I'd carry a chest full of ice with me wherever I go, you know, just to make those burrs go away when it's time to plop the hat back on, just in time, before anyone sees me with hat hair.

Just so you know: It was 70 today and my Pilates instructor wore a cap indoors (and fiddled with the air conditioner).

And I wore Uggs (don't tell anybody).

I guess you have to do what you gotta do, otherwise, how would life be interesting?

I like this cap. I like the pom pom. Whenever I add pom poms to caps, I thread the yarn through the top but tie a nice, tight bow on the underside so I can:

1. Wash it without the pom pom attached.

2. Quickly remove it when pom-pom naysayers are nearby.

I'm testing it out in a finer yarn, this time with the Wollmeise. 

P.S. HWWV: If you're reading this, don't feel bad about your manpris. At least yours don't hit you at the thickest part of your calves.