FO: Honeybee Cardigan

 

At long last I can talk about the sweater that became the saga of my first half of the year, lol. This sweater took me a year of working on and off, but I'm thrilled with the results, so let's get into all the gory details. 

This is the Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau, a pattern I've had in my stash for years and always wanted to make up. There are bee shapes in the lace, which is just the coolest. I paired it with another long stashed yarn - This is Art Yarns Milano in the Eucalyptus colorway, which was custom dyed for Craftsy. I grabbed it on clearance in 2017 and I just could never decide what to make with it. Then one day I pulled it out to swatch for this pattern and a project was born. The yarn is listed as sport weight on Ravelry, but this is the smallest sport weight I've ever worked with. Definitely fingering in my book, and I achieved gauge with it just fine for this pattern, so it all worked out. I started this in May of 2022 and was very excited about it. I didn't have all that much knitting time back then, but I sailed right along once I got in a groove with the pattern. Then disaster struck. In September, I was about 10 inches up the body (this is knit bottom up) and I noticed a major mistake with a dropped stitch about 6 inches down from where I was at the time. I tried to drop down and do sweater surgery to fix it, but this lace pattern builds on itself, so after trying for a while I decided it was way too complicated and just wasn't looking right no matter what I did, so I had to just frog back 6 inches of lace work. Ugh. This is why you add in life lines, friends. I will definitely be doing that on future projects.

I remade the body and started the sleeves just before Halloween, but then I started knitting Christmas gifts and didn't start the second one until January. This was then my main project until March because I was so determined to get it finished. I finished knitting the whole thing except the bands and I knew I would not have enough yarn to finish. This had me so in denial and upset that I just set it aside for about a month while I decided what to do - since this is an exclusive hand dyed yarn from so many years ago, I knew I couldn't just buy more. I went to Hobby Lobby (my only local store) and was surprised that they had an acrylic blend that looked like the darker tones of my yarn. It wasn't perfect, but it would get the job done, so I bought this whole set of 6 colors of yarn just for this one and knit the bands when I got home. I was happy with it being done and I blocked the sweater. Then I tried it on ... and the sleeves grew in blocking. I documented all the frustrations here. It was such a difference that I couldn't wear it like it was. I set it aside for another month while I puzzled out what to do.

Thankfully I found this video by Roxanne Richardson that explained how to unravel from the bottom (I had to cut my knitting!) and I was able to cut off where I wanted the ribbing to start and the just re-knit the ribbing in the opposite direction. You would never know if I didn't tell you - it looks just like before.

With back tracking, it made the yarn have a much more jarring transition in color. That's the one struggle with hand dyed tonal yarns. These are the same dye lot and everything, but the skein for the ribbing is much darker. I've embraced it and it doesn't bother me as much in person. But with shortening the sleeves, I had more yarn to knit the button bands in matching yarn. I didn't mind the darker color of the replacement yarn I bought for the bands, but I did not love that it was a different fiber content. So I bit the bullet and just unraveled the button bands and neck band and re-knit those in the original yarn as well. So much re-knitting on this project, but it was worth it for the end result.

Once I blocked the sweater a second time, it was time to back the button bands like I always do on my fitted sweaters. Amazingly, I had a perfectly matching piece of petersham ribbon in the right width and length for this sweater that I had bought from Britex probably 8 years ago. It was a miracle, seriously. I thought I was in the clear, but I used my new sewing machine to make the buttonholes and it did not go well. This is easily my messiest looking buttonhole band I've ever done. I had to unpick as many as you see sewn, which was an extremely frustrating evening. The machine does great for buttonholes on garments, but it did not like that the sensor was hanging off the fabric of the ribbon. Anyway, I was just happy to get them sewn and functional even if they didn't look amazing - it's on the inside anyway. My buttons were also from le stash and I've had them for years. They are gray with a slight iridescence and they looked nice, so I went with them.

So this saga concluded 1 year and 6 days after I started it. It was rough going several times, but I always really wanted the finished product and forced myself to keep troubleshooting. As I get older in my knitting life, I have learned that I'm not just making this for the finished product. I love wearing the things I make, don't get me wrong, but it's the act of knitting itself that I really enjoy. The finished product is just a nice perk, so it's worth it to redo things until it is how I want it to be since I enjoy knitting no matter what. Might as well ensure that I enjoy the finished item as much as I enjoyed the process of making it.

And that's my Honeybee cardigan :) I really love how this turned out and I would absolutely make this pattern again if the mood strikes. I love this color yarn, I love this pattern, I love the fit - I think the whole thing just turned out great. I particularly loved the bee lace pattern and I would totally incorporate that into a project again. I haven't worn this much yet because I finished it just as the heat of summer really ramped up, but I know this will be a staple item as things cool down here and for years to come.

Summary:

• Yarn: 5 skeins Art Yarns Milano in Eucalyptus colorway (custom dyed for Craftsy) - $26.25, 0.48 skeins Yarn bee Pigments + Fiber yarn in the green from the Fridays in Florence pack, $5.98
• Pattern: Honeybee Cardigan by Laura Chau
• Notions: Petersham Ribbon - $4.00, 14 buttons - $0.25
• Time: 1 year and 6 days
• Total Cost: $36.48