FO – Honeybee Cardigan

Finally I’ve finished my Honeybee Cardigan. I’ve started it in April but it didn’t took that long to knit it. It’s me who has the finishing blues. As soon as I know how the finished product looks like, I lose interest finishing the knitted garment – even if it’s already 80 or 90% done. I like to start new projects. And there are so many I have in my mind right now… As a new years resolution – and my guilt feelings about how many WIP’s (Work in progress) I have – I’ve wanted to finish this nice summer cardigan before the warm temperatures are definitely gone.

honeybee cardigan frontPattern: Honeybee Cardigan from Laura Chau
Yarn: 2 skeins of Wollmeise “Twin”, in “Limone”

Rather the yarn was bought for a cowl, I’ve used it for this nice cardigan. I’ve only had to skeins with a total yardage of 933 meters. Though I know two skeins are enough for a sweater with 3/4 arms, I wasn’t sure if it’s enough for a lace cardigan.

The piece is knitted bottom up. It has only a 6 rows repeat and – I know it’s hard to believe but – very easy to keep it in mind. The body was knitted very fast. It has no waist shaping but I’ve read a lot of the pattern notes from other Ravelers about it and I’ve noticed that the pattern makes it very stretchy.

The pattern calls for a set-in-sleeve. That means you knit the sleeves bottom up and as soon as it comes to the armhole you work the rows together with the body part and decrease the sleeve stitches on the go. The sleeves are originally plain stockinette but I’ve wanted something different. Inspired by a very similar pattern from Christa Giles called “Candlewick” which has a very nice detail for a saddle shoulder, I’ve started the sleeves from the elbow by a provisional cast on and worked it up to the armhole with a honeybee stripe. I’ve never done that before but with the help of the book “Knitting from the top” by Barbara Walker and a bit of courage I’ve worked the sleeves in the body.

honeybee cardigan - shoulder detailAs I told you before I wasn’t sure if I ran out of yarn, I’ve started the neck shaping one pattern repeat before the instructions said so. After I’ve finished attaching the sleeves to the body by a saddle shoulder, I’ve knitted first the buttonhole and buttonband ribbing and then the i-cord finishing around the neckline. Now I’ve really knew how much yarn was left for the rest of the sleeves and I could knit them down to the ribbing without being worried. Yarn leftovers: 12grams/ 37meters! I guess it wouldn’t be enough for a 6 row pattern repeat in the body. That means I’ve made the right decisions. How great is that?

6 Responses

  1. Murielle Doré
    | Reply

    It looks fabulous. Well done! :)

    • donnarossa
      | Reply

      Thank you. I’m looking forward to your project with the two limes ;-)

  2. Amy
    | Reply

    Beautiful cardigan! I really love the color!

    • donnarossa
      | Reply

      First I was intimidated by the color that this yellow doesn’t match to my skein. But now I really like it :-)

  3. Bastien odile
    | Reply

    Magnifique modèle est-ce que les explications pourraient être en langue française ? Merci beaucoup. Amicalement.

    • donnarossa
      | Reply

      Thank you. I already linked the pattern to Ravelry in this post. The pattern is only available in English. I am not the designer of the pattern.

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