FO: Beulah Bee

Sometimes you just need to make a cute toy, right? That's my thought at least. I haven't been having a really great time lately, yet whenever I saw this adorable bee pattern on Barbara Prime's Ravelry page, it made me smile. It's just so adorable. Since I had finished the knitting on my Mohn Cardigan, I bought the pattern magazine just for this pattern and cast on the next day. 

This is the Bunblebee and Flower pattern by Barbara Prime and it's in the December 2023 issue of Knit Now magazine (issue 163). This is a British knitting magazine, but thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to download a digital copy for myself online for just $7.99. Gotta love it. The issue does have some other lovely patterns too, so I will be exploring that further in the future for sure. This is a "bun"blebee because it is bun shaped. She has a series of animals called bunimals that are all based off this idea and I just love it. This is the first one I've knit, and I have to say I think a bumblebee is the perfect animal to make bun shaped. It just adds to the chubby cuteness.

As always with toy projects, I grabbed yarn from my stash for this baby. The black, yellow, and white are all I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby and the blue is a mystery acrylic I got at a thrift store way back when. I just picked the blue to match the color of the eyes :) I made my bee in the round instead of seamed. I've made a lot of Barbara's patterns in the past and she is definitely pro-seaming, but having just seamed my entire Mohn cardigan the night before, I just wasn't feeling up to it. This bee is shaped like a ball, so what better shape to knit in the round, right? Very easy to change and I had no issues.

I will admit that since my bee was knitted in the round that my rear end doesn't have quite as tight of stitches as the rest of the bee from before I added stuffing, but it's still fine. It's a toy and there are no holes, lol. It's fine. The one complaint I get from everyone is that this bee doesn't have a stinger. The pattern didn't include one and I just didn't feel like adding one. This is a kindly bee. No stinging.

The bottom does show my jogs from knitting in the round, but it's the bottom so it doesn't bother me. I just learned a cool trick to avoid this in the future, so that's nice. The feet were actually the last part I knit - after I had already done the flower. The pattern gives nice details about how to space out the feet when sewing them on, so I just went by the photos and referenced the distances to make sure I was getting somewhat close.

The flower construction is pretty cool, but it honestly took as long to make the flower as it did to make the bee. I don't know why this surprised me because it had to be big enough to fit the bee, but you know, lol. I love all the details of Barbara's patterns, but mentally it feels like the accessories take so much longer since in my mind when the animal is done the project is done. Does that make sense? I still finished this in just 2 days, so I don't know what I'm complaining about.

So that's my bee :) This project did exactly what I needed it to do and it cheers me up every time I see it. My kid love it, I think it's adorable. All around a very adorable palette cleansing project. Now I just have to decide where this little baby should live in my sewing room so I can see her all the time.