Proudly presenting...

... the Honeybee Stole by Knitspot

It was completed last Sunday (16th) after 5 weeks of knitting but it took until last night to block it, what with one thing another...

It's been a very enjoyable knit and one I would do again in the future most definitely. I would however not do the little 'nobbles' at the ends and perhaps just add 3 stitches either end and make a garter stitch edge.... The other thing I would do is change the pattern in the top & bottom edges; it seems very random to me and after the 'regularity' of the other patterns it was a little disappointing, but those are just my personal views....

My version is still knit on 3.75mm needles (Addi Lace) but I have used just over 2.5 hanks of Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in colourway "Tide Pool Heather". I wasn't struck by the yarn at first, well I didn't not like it but I didn't love it, as most of you regular readers will know I'm not a fluffy or hairy yarn sort of girl.... I felt like I was picking what I thought to be dog hairs off all the time, but after awhile I got used to it and realised they weren't dog hairs and by the time I'd finished I quite enjoyed using the yarn... but there does feel like there's more than 400m on a skein it goes a long, long, long way!!!!

I cast on the stitches for the petit version but knit the pattern repeats as for the large version, simply just to use the yarn up (think I have about 24g left) it has come out at 22" wide and 8' 9" in length...

Anyway here the photo's
Beehive

Bee Swarm

Bee & Honeycomb

The finished article

I'm very pleased with it and the colour is beautiful.... definitely recommend this as a 'nice' knit, despite having a deadline to knit to I had no problems what so ever picking it up each day and knitting the alloted repeats in fact most times I knitted more were time permitted hence finishing it a week ahead of schedule!!!

The only 'glitch' I had was with the bee pattern was without reading through the written pattern instructions to drop yarn overs from previous rows, I wouldn't have guessed that from the charts alone, hence it took me awhile to get the first couple of rows sorted.... if all else fails read the instructions!!!

On the other Christmas knitting front, I have less than a pair of socks to do, just from two pairs!!! DH's Trekking are about to have the heel turned on the 2nd sock and DF's Lana Grossa pair have just had the 2nd sock cast on.... but he's not back until Thursday the 27th so I have a little extra time!!! I will post photos of them when they are complete....