I’ve had the fun of designing the crochet pattern for our local yarn shop tour for the last several years. While I enjoy supporting a local business, I also get to hear first-hand people’s reactions to my pattern as I pass them out.
This year’s pattern was the Honeycomb Coral Hat https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeycomb-coral-hat.
I was inspired after me and the MR visited Fiji last fall. The coral was incredible, and the honeycomb coral captured my imagination. Well, lots of people are simply knitters or only crocheters. And I totally respect that. Others enjoy one craft over the other which is understandable.
But when one customer said how much she liked the design, and then stated she never wears hats, I was stumped. Don’t you take your kids to the bus stop in the rain and cold of fall, winter, and spring? Don’t you walk your dog with fabulous ladies most weekdays? Don’t you go camping in the glorious, rainy, months we call summer here in Washington state?
Her life certainly didn’t mirror my own. And then I was listening to a knitting podcast–as one does–and had an a-hah moment. The mother-daughter duo was talking about making hats, and the daughter said that she’d just skip the crown shaping and make her mother a cowl, since her mom didn’t wear hats.
Hmm. This was a total work smarter, not harder moment. Sometimes a great new design comes from scaling back. I had yarn leftover from the shop sample and decided to whip up a cowl.
What happens when you need 27 motifs, but you only have enough yarn for 25? You improvise. I thought the contrast yarn would be the perfect foil, but the gauge was way off. I had plans to copy the brim shaping for both the top and bottom edge of the cowl and didn’t want to mess with a wonky gauge. I did have a little gray sock yarn leftover from Sweet P’s cardigan, and a fabulous pair of socks I’d just finished. The gray got the vote.
So I stitched the motifs together and had another work smarter moment. Why not pare back the brim construction? I added a row of accent top and bottom and took a look.
I liked it, but decided to keep going. I only had enough of the alpaca/silk blend to make the fuzzy edging on one side. I’m quite pleased.
If you’re an extra, over-the-top, kind of person who loves fuzzy, you can go to town and fancy up both edges. More reserved? You can skip them all together. I think this is the perfect halfway point.
The cowl directions are listed below. You can find the hat pattern on Ravelry. It will be available for free until July 31, 2023, and then available for $5. You can find all my patterns on Ravelry under Kim Birum Designs. The Cowl pattern is also on Ravelry for free and without any ads. Enjoy!
Honeycomb Coral Cowl
Materials:
Main color: 50g fingering weight
Contrast yarn: 10g Cumulus by Fiberspates (laceweight)
Gauge: each motif measures 2.375 in (6 cm)
Size C crochet hook or size to get gauge
Locking stitch marker
Abbreviations:
CC: Contrast Color
Hdc: Half Double Crochet
MC: Main Color
Sc: Single Crochet
Sc3tog: Single Crochet 3 together
Sl st: Slip stitch
St(s): Stitch(es)
Tog: Together
Motif:
Row 1: Work 6 sc into magic loop. Tighten. (6 sts)
Row 2: 2 sc into each sc around. (12 sts)
Row 3: (sc, 2 sc into next st) rep around. (18 sts)
Row 4: (sc in next two sts, 2 sc into next st) rep around. (24 sts)
Row 5: (sc in next three sts, 2 sc into next st) rep around. (30 sts)
Row 6: (sc in next four sts, 2 sc into next st) rep around. (36 sts)
Row 7: (sc in next five sts, 2 sc into next st) rep around. (42 sts) Sl st in top of first st of row 7. Fasten off, and weave in ends.
Make 27 motifs.
Join tog motifs with accent yarn. Begin with a slip knot on hook. Slip stitch in back loop of first motif at corner and then in back loop of second motif at corner. Continue slip stitching in the back loop of each stitch across side alternating motifs. At corner, join third motif to second motif in same manner. Then join fourth motif to third, fifth to fourth, and sixth to fifth. Continue with next column of motifs joining as shown in Figure 1. Blue line denotes stitching. When all 27 motifs have been joined into a band, join in the round using the same method by joining tog matching A, B, and C as shown in Figure 2. Now, sl st horizontally as shown with the red lines. When you reach the blue lines slip stitch along previous stitching.
Edging:
Row 1: Using contrast color, work hdc in each stitch around. Fasten off. (126)
Flip cowl and begin working on opposite edge.
Row 1: Using contrast color, work hdc in each stitch around.
Row 2: sc in each st around.
Row 3: Chain 3, work a sl st around next sc. Repeat to end of row.
Row 4: Chain 3, sls st around next hdc from Row 1. Repeat to end of round. Fasten off and weave in ends.
Notes:
I used 45g of the speckled yarn and supplemented with 5g of the plain gray. I used up all of the 10g of fuzzy alpaca blend. If you want to have more of a frill on each edge, you will need more of the accent yarn. The extra frilly edging causes the cowl to flare a bit. If you want to use it on both edges, I would make a sc 3 tog decrease at each motif joining. I hope you enjoy this pattern. Please tag your creations on IG and Ravelry #honeycombcoralcowl @kimbirumdesigns.
Which would you choose a hat or a cowl? Frill or no frill?
Crocheting with Kim 