Designing with honeycomb mesh in lace, part 3

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(Not that I numbered the first two, but they’re visible under the hex lace tag, along with the relevant stitch patterns.)

Something I’ve been noticing about designing lace with honeycomb mesh is that it’s not always possible to draw the shapes I want on paper and have them come out well as knitting. A recent experiment on this front helped me figure out why.

A horizontal zig-zag band drawn on hexagonal graph paper by roughly filling in hexagons to make the design. There’s a shallow zigzag at the bottom with elongate points sticking up into the middle, a wiggly and steeper zigzag in the middle, and then another shallow zigzag defining the top of the band, with elongated points sticking down into the middle.
Figure 1

Figure 1: I started with a doodle on hexagon graph paper. I liked it, so I thought I’d try turning it into lace knitting. (I have a new process for this, summarized at the bottom of my Fresh lace post, that I’ll talk about in more detail another time. In the meantime, here’s how to convert a graph paper doodle into lace knitting.)

the honeycomb doodle interpreted as knitted lace -- the dark hexagons are solid knitting, and the light hexagons are lace hexagonal outlines.
Figure 2

Figure 2: Then I tried knitting it, and was disappointed when it looked like a confused jumble. It was hard to see the pattern in it. I was so disappointed that I stopped before finishing. It does look better after blocking, but not so much as I’d hoped. I considered inverting the solid parts and lace parts, but I quickly realized that the problem is that I drew all the lines as narrowly as possible and made them wind around a lot.

A scroll shape knit in solid knitting on a honeycomb mesh background.
Figure 3

Figure 3: A one hexagon wide stockinette line on a honeycomb background can obviously work, but I think it needs to be restricted to mostly being shallow diagonals as in this scroll pattern. Even this has a few problems.

Described in text
Figure 4

Figure 4: The difficulty is that the decreases and increases that make up the honeycomb split up the bits of solid stockinette between them. In some places this is desirable; in other places, this can make for an unclear jumble, because a line of what should be solid stockinette ends up with vertical splits that make it hard to see them as solid.

The original sketchy art drawn with now solid dark grey and white hexagons, and then redrawn with thicker grey lines.
Figure 5

Figure 5: I decided it was time to redraw the design. I’d already copied the original doodle into the kind of computer art I work with for this, so I did the new drawing there. I only made the dark grey lines I was going to work in stockinette thicker, as the lace hexagons are clear and don’t get distorted by the stockinette.

Here are the final knitting chart and instructions:

Zigzag Honeycomb Band

The second version of the honeycomb doodle interpreted as knitted lace -- the dark hexagons are solid knitting, and the light hexagons are lace hexagonal outlines.
Chart showing how to knit Zigzag honeycomb band by means of special symbols. Written instructions in blog post.
click chart to enlarge and remove fuzziness

Notes:.

  • This is a stitch pattern such as might be found in a stitch dictionary. It is not a pattern for a finished object. You will need to add selvedges or some other form of knitted stitches to either side.
  • The transition into the final version in the knitted sample is not correct. The chart is meant to have plain honeycomb mesh (scroll down) above and below it, though I’m sure other patterns would work too.
  • Zigzag honeycomb band is a multiple of 12 + 4 stitches and 32 rows.
  • I’ve made a stitch map for Zigzag honeycomb band.
  • Designers, please feel free to use this in your patterns. I’d like credit but won’t be offended if people don’t give it.
  • My blog posts and free stitch patterns are supported by subscriptions on Patreon or donations to my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. If you appreciate my work, please consider helping out. Thanks!

Abbreviations:

  • active needle: the needle on which new stitches are placed.
  • double yo: bring the yarn forward between the needles, wrap it once around the active needle, and leave the yarn in front so it makes a second loop when the next stitch is knit.
  • k: knit.
  • k2tog: knit 2 stitches together as if they were 1. (Right-leaning decrease)
  • p: purl.
  • ssk: slip each of the next 2 stitches as if to knit, then knit them together through the back loop. (Or substitute your favorite left-leaning decrease)
  • yo: yarnover. Bring the yarn forward between the needles so that it will make a loop over the needle when the next stitch is worked.

Row 1 (RS): *k4, (k2tog, double yo, ssk) × 2, k4; work from *.

Row 2 (WS): *p5, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p5; work from *.

Row 3: *k6, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k6; work from *.

Row 4: *p7, (k1, p1) in double yo, p7; work from *.

Row 5: knit.

Row 6: purl.

Row 7: knit.

Row 8: purl.

Row 9: *k2tog, double yo, ssk, k8, k2tog, double yo, ssk; work from *.

Row 10: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p10, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *.

Row 11: *k2, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k4, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k2; work from *.

Row 12: *p3, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p3; work from *.

Row 13: *k4, (k2tog, double yo, ssk) × 2, k4; work from *.

Row 14: *p5, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p5; work from *.

Row 15: knit.

Row 16: purl.

Row 17: *k4, (k2tog, double yo, ssk) × 2, k4; work from *.

Row 18: *p5, (k1, p1) in double yo, p2, (k1, p1) in double yo, p5; work from *.

Row 19: *k6, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k6; work from *.

Row 20: *p7, (k1, p1) in double yo, p7; work from *.

Row 21: *k2tog, double yo, ssk, k8, k2tog, double yo, ssk; work from *.

Row 22: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p10, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *.

Row 23: *k6, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k6; work from *.

Row 24: *p7, (k1, p1) in double yo, p7; work from *.

Row 25: *k2tog, double yo, ssk, k8, k2tog, double yo, ssk; work from *.

Row 26: *p1, (k1, p1) in double yo, p10, (k1, p1) in double yo, p1; work from *.

Row 27: *k2, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k4, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k2; work from *.

Row 28: *p3, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p3; work from *.

Row 29: knit.

Row 30: purl.

Row 31: *k2, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k4, k2tog, double yo, ssk, k2; work from *.

Row 32: *p3, (k1, p1) in double yo, p6, (k1, p1) in double yo, p3; work from *.