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....

Steamers in Ultramarine III

Sounds a very grand title, but is in fact my latest completed pair of socks......

I had a bit of a nightmare with these... as you can see I like my socks to match and halfway down the leg of the 2nd sock (and these are size 10/12) just were it starts going blue/red the yarn didn't!!! It wasn't joined the pattern just went from a little bit or red/blue and then straight into white/red/black a good inch and half further down the pattern.....

I ended up winding off the yarn and going to the next pattern repeat and then as you can imagine I was paranoid all the way through the rest of the knitting the same thing might happen again and/or I ran out of yarn.... as you can see I made it with virtually a full pattern repeat left and the bit I cut off in the middle.... I have never been so glad to finish a pair of socks especially as they are a gift and I am being paid to knit them.....

On other knitting front Scarf with No 20 border is no more..... the Swallowtail is progressing and I have done wait for it 5 repeats on the VLT Sampler shawl... photos will follow I promise... I do feel loads better now I have ripped back the scarf and started on the border....

I am still pondering over SIL's stole, I think she would prefer a rectangular to a triangle otherwise I may consider Fleegles suggestion of Wing-of-the-Moth-shawl by Knitspot, so at the moment I am still leaning towards Knitspot's Honeybee stole....