His & Hers Honeycomb Toques

If you've been a reader of this blog for a long time, you may have wondered why my husband rarely makes an appearance wearing anything knitted. The main reason is that he's a very hard person to knit for. I have dreams of knitting him gorgeous pullovers and cardigans, full of cables and intricate design techniques, like Timberline, but all he wants is something plain. No design, just stockinette stitch. Oh, and a mock turtleneck. And quite honestly, the thought of knitting a man sized sweater in plain stockinette stitch that has a mock turtleneck makes me shudder. Thanks to a suggestion from Gail, I think we've found a happy medium with Elizabeth Zimmemann's Seamless Hybrid. Let's be honest, it's a far cry from the cabled man-sweater of my dreams, but if I've learned only one thing in our 5 years of marriage, it's that sometimes it's all about compromise, so I hope to make him that sweater sometime in 2015.

I really wanted to make him a hat for Christmas, and I was shocked (but happy!) when he agreed to the Honeycomb Toque pattern. I gave him a few yarn choices, and he went with Knit Picks Full Circle Worsted, which I believe has been discontinued. I had a skein in grey, and one in green, and he chose the grey, which is a nice masculine color. Since I also had a skein in green, I thought it would be really fun (read: super dorky) to make myself a matching hat out of the other skein.

Now, Jake & I are no strangers to wearing matching clothing. Here's a photo of us from 2007 (!!!) wearing our matching rain jackets. Granted, the colors are different, but we loved those jackets and wore them until the inside lining came off.

(yes, I used to have my nose pierced. I miss it, but apparently it's not "age appropriate".)

I have no doubt that we will be that old couple you see walking down the street with matching outfits on, though at that point in our lives I'm sure that we will have graduated to matching patterns AND colors.

I digress.

(How handsome is he?? I sure lucked out.)

I really enjoyed knitting these hats. The yarn was very nice to work with, and I'm a little sad it's no longer available. It was a nice, sturdy, single ply that's very soft to the touch, especially for a 100% wool that's not superwash. To make Jake's, I decided to modify the pattern a little after reading through others notes on Ravelry. Apparently the pattern, as written, is a little tight, and better suited for a more petite head. For his, I cast on 96 stitches instead of 80, and increased to 112 instead of 96, which gave me two extra pattern repeats. I had to fudge the decreases quite a bit, and am kicking myself for not taking notes, because I'm actually quite pleased with how the shaping came out.

The crown shaping is one of my favorite parts of this pattern, so I'm glad it still turned out okay. For mine, I knitted the pattern as written, and after a gentle blocking, the hat fits perfectly.

And now, the photo I'm sure you've all been waiting for.

 

Matching!!