another one off the needles...

Yarn: Røros Lamullgarn, black, 100% wool, 50gr/250m. Used 250 grams.
Needles: KnitPicks 4mm
Started: August 31st, 2008
Finished: October 5th, 2008

My second BeeFields. It's a fun knit, but not for the inexperienced...

I changed the beginning a little, instead of having to graft, I cast on half of the stitches needed, knit over those, and then picked up form the "bottom" of the cast-on row, for the second half of the first row. Does it make sense at all-LOL? The main reason to do so, was to avoid the grafting, and it turned out very nice in my opinion. Forgot to take a picture though...

Better Buzzing Bees

After ripping out six rows of bad bees last week, I've got a better batch of buzzing bees:

I'm about 2/3 through the first repeat of the swarm, and although the rows are starting to feel really long, I'm enjoying seeing the bees pop up!

I've been Swarmed

I made it through the beehive section over the weekend, and had some problems starting up the swarm--see photos here. I ripped out seven rows (I'm not sure why I believed they looked fine up to that point), and am now just about where I was before ripping. It looks much better now. I did not put in a lifeline, but I know that I should.

Who out there is using a lifeline? Have you had to use it?

Just Starting

With the completion of Swan Lake (a.k.a. Mystery Stole 3) I can now dive whole-heartedly into Bee Fields. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw its picture and am happily knitting away, even though my husband keeps asking how many shawls I really need!

I am totally in love with the yarn (Wooly Wonka Tupelo Gold), which is extremely soft, and the color changes are much more subtle in the knit fabric than they were in the unwound skein.

My biggest problem so far is the "winglets" in the beehive section. They look really loose and sloppy, and I can't figure out how to tighten them up... unless I am just supposed to assume that they will fix themselves when the shawl is blocked. Here is a closeup:



I struggled getting started because of some confusion over counting the BO2 as the first Knit stitch, but once I got that in my head, it has been pretty smooth sailing.

If any of you have tips for potential pitfalls, I would love to read about them!

The Shawl, She is Done!

With many thanks to all with regard to the loosest bind off, I chose the K2tog, slip back to the left hand needle, K2tog, repeat, repeat, repeat...it took a lot less time than it did to unpick the umpteen gazillion stitches in the bad bindoff.

Sorry for the dark picture - it's a gloomy morning here in nyc.

I'll probably block it tomorrow - more interested in starting the stole, and doing the winglets the "other" way - and once I have enough of them done, I'll take comparison pix of the two to show the differences.

New-bee

I just joined the KAL, although I've been working on my bee fields shawl for a couple of weeks. I'm using Addi lace turbos size 5 with Schaefer Andrea (silk) in the Jeanette Rankin colorway, which I'm hoping will look like fields of wildflowers, but not too busy.

I knit the setup section at least 6 times, and yesterday I spent about 3 hours achieving my all time daily low of negative-9 rows in the beehive section. I even found a mistake in my lifeline row! At this rate, I will be the longest-lived KAL participant here.

Keep posting all your wonderful photos, and I will try to do the same when I get far enough to pull out the camera.

Beehives Ahoy!

I'm making good progress on the beehive section of the Bee Fields Shawl, and I wish that I could work on it all of the time. I seriously want to cast on the Honeybee Stole immediately, and I may or may not have picked up some yarn during lunch to swatch with.

I'd like to make a solid Killer Bee black stole, and I'd like something about the same weight as the Wooly Wonka kit I'm using for the shawl. The yarn I am going to swatch with may be too heavy, and it might have more halo that I'd like. Does anyone have suggestions for me?

Winglets - a different take

Hi - I've done the winglets thusly:

- I'm doing the chart (not the written instructions) and the bound off sts stay on my needle and then I do the 8 sts for the edging ... on the way back I just kick that last st off. I don't count that winglet st as the first st. Sorry I can't take a better picture of them, but hopefully you'll get my drift...

thanks for the tutorial, AnnMarie!

Now that I figured this out, with your help, I'll post pix as I progress... this is the first part of the Bees in the Field Section 1. It's very "mindless" which is great because I needed it today!
I did have to tink a couple of rows back but now I hope I'm full speed ahead, since I want desperately to finish it so I can start on the Stole!