Part of the Homegrown Hat Collection, the Skep Hat resembles an old-fashioned bee skep overflowing with honeycomb. Bees once built their hives in the underside of the skep, a handmade basket of sorts with a small hole in one side for bee entry and exit, so this Skep is more of an artist’s interpretation of how one works. These rather inhumane types of hives are no longer used today because the colony must be removed from the skep and killed to harvest the honey. Thank goodness for L.L. Langstroth for inventing the modern-day frame hives in use today. They’re much kinder, as is this hat project with its integrated welts and cables construction.

Pattern has been tech edited and tested.