Better Honey

The Honey Cowl by Antonia Shankland is a very, very popular pattern on Ravelry. Despite its simplicity, I only had to read it once to notice that there are a few obvious improvements that can make it even simpler.

Make it knit-only

If you use two skeins of yarn (or the two ends of the same skein), you can avoid all that dreadful purling:

1. Cast-on with yarn 1, join in the round (place a marker at the beginning of the round) and knit one round.
2. Turn the work and join yarn 2. Knit round 2 of the pattern: (knit 1, slip 1 with yarn in the back) repeat to the end of the round
3. Turn the work and pick yarn 1, knit (rounds 1 and 3).
4. Turn the work and pick yarn 2. Knit round 4 of the pattern: (slip 1 with yarn in the back, knit 1) repeat to the end of the round.
5. Continue repeating the above rounds 1 to 4 until you reach the desired size and bind off.

Make it perfect

The above method is the simplest, but it does leave a noticeable ridge at the line formed by the beginning of the rounds. If you are an absolute perfectionist and do not mind doing a little extra work helical stripes is an extremely simple technique that allows to completely remove the transition between the rounds. It is a genius idea, so simple, so obvious and still... how come I never thought of this before!

I did not come up with this idea, I took it from Jen. For this to work you need to use two yarn ends, just like above, but you cannot turn the work, so you will have to work the purl rounds. Sorry about that. Here is how to do it:

1. Cast-on with yarn 1, join in the round (place a marker at the beginning of the round) and knit one round.
2. Join yarn 2. Knit round 2 of the pattern: (purl 1, slip 1 with yarn in front) repeat to the end of the round, but stop a few stitches before the stitch knit with yarn 1.
3. Pick up yarn 1 and continue to knit where you left off, stopping a few stitches before the stitch knit with yarn 2.
4. Pick up yarn 2 and continue to knit round 2 where you left off. Continue alternating the two rounds by picking up alternating yarns and always stopping just a few stitches before the stitch where previous yarn end is.
5. Bind off when you reach the desired size.

Addendum

The pattern mentions 4 rounds of straight knitting after cast-on (before beginning the 4 rounds of the pattern) and 3 rounds of straight knitting before bind-off. These make pretty curled edges, but are optional (the photo on the left and the photos that are included with the pattern do not seem to include them). Some people prefer to work them in garter stitch instead.