Creating HEXEH (or The Struggles of a Dumb Designer)

At first I meant for this cowl to be part of my Dwarven Collection (along with Amdam and Conversation with Smaug). I wanted something less flamboyant than CwS, more geometric, whilst still using two colors and my modified brioche technique. I wanted quite ‘big’ shapes, with an all over tile-like design. And I wanted the FO to be fully reversible. The thing is, my original goal was to make octagons (because to me, octagons=dwarvish aesthetic. Don’t ask.). And as I was trying out different stitches combinations, I ended up with hexagons – and I really liked the look of them. I worked some more to make them look nice on the ‘wrong’ side and BAM, I had a new stitch pattern ready to use for a new design. Only they were not octagons. Not dwarvish enough. Meh.

So I kept working and did try to modify the reversible hexagons to turn them into reversible octagons. I managed to make something octogonal-ish, but I thought it didn’t look quite as good as the reversible hexagons pattern (can’t remember if I took pictures before frogging. Probably forgot to. Because I’m dumb.).

So I decided not to make this pattern part of the Dwarven collection (though you could say it is a distant cousin of CwS, in a way ;p). I haven’t given up on the idea of a pattern showcasing a repetition of octagons but I think I’ll have to construct them differently than I did these hexagons – maybe I’ll have to give up of the reversibility, and that would lead to other changes… I’ll have to think about it. (I’m currently working on others stuff so that’ll have to wait a little :/ I’ve got too many WIPs at the moment. WAY too many.)

I did struggle a little to find a way to carry the yarn up discreetly – which is why I included so many diagrams (2 pages) in the finished pattern. I think I did a pretty good job in the end. And the effort was worth the extra work: Hexeh ended up fully reversible (as I’d wanted) and there are no extra ends to weave in.

See, I absolutely hate cutting the yarn when it’s not necessary. I REALLY do. Not only do I not enjoy the process of weaving ends in (I don’t HATE it, per se, but you’ve gotta admit, it’s not fun at all.) but I, most importantly, tend to frog a lot when creating/prototyping a new pattern. So the less I have to cut my yarn, the better.

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The (almost) yarn incident //shudders//

I wanted to use two colors which would contrast nicely with one another and couldn’t find two Rios colorways in my stash that fit this criteria. So I grabbed the next best thing, my stash of Karisma in Petrol (which looks pretty awesome with Rios Sand Bank, if you ask me) and went ahead. Tralala, everything’s good, everything’s fine, no need to check the labels, these are yarns I’m familiar with.

NOPE. 
(Well, I mean, YES, I’m familiar with them. I’m also an idiot. So…)

To be honest, I’ve always been ordering (oh, the joy of living in the middle of nowhere -_-’) Garnstudio DROPS Karisma thinking it was a worsted weight yarn. I felt kinda dumb (dumber than usual, that is) when the time came to add Hexeh to the Ravely pattern database and I saw that Karisma was listed as a DK. So I had to backpedal and modify a large chunk of the ‘supplies’ section of the pattern – after having done some research, and found that yes, Karisma is definitely on the HEAVY side of DK… darn you, Garnstudio! Darn you! //shakes fist to the heavens//.

(Yes I know it’s my fault for not checking but come on, the thing feels like a worsted, I swear!).

I ended up using 128g of Karisma BUT said the pattern calls for 150g to be safe (because Karisma is ever so slightly ‘thinner’ than Rios, so I’m assuming it might take a few more grams of Rios to get the same result).

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Oh and to any fellow geek/nerd stumbling upon this page : yes, I know Morpheus doesn't say that line. I KNOW. But I like the meme. So I guess I'll leave you with this: