A bee in the bonnet

 In other words, what do you give to your future sister in law, if she married into a beekeeper family? 

My love language is "I made this for you!" Of course I like hugs, and being told somebody loves me, just as much as the next person, but I like making things with my hands, and I often like to express my love for someone by making them something... Which is really hard with Norbert's family, one, because I only know them for about six years, and not all that well. Besides, they did not grow up with handknitted pieces in their wardrobe. 

However, last year, when I loaned my Outlander costume to hear, to wear at a historical fair, I also gave her the neckwarmer,  I made for that ensemble. And she told me, she liked it so much, so that was all I needed, I ordered the last 4 balls of pink yarn so fast, you could not even say Jack Daniels.

That was my last year's Xmas present for her (never even shot a picture of it), and she seemed to like it, in fact she told me a few times, how much she liked it, so I felt brave enough to give her something handknitted again this year. First I was thinking about a pink hat to go with the neckwarmer, then I had a better idea... 

She IS married into a beekeeper family, and they also keep bees... 

So I dived into Ravelry, dug through my stash and started knitting... You have seen the beginnings here.

The latvian braid was difficult enough, but we all know, I rarely go toward the easier solution, so not only changed some colors (instead of only yellow, I used orange AND yellow)...

But for some rows (especially for the bees) it needed not two but three colors... and certain places there were really long floats for those two colors, that needed to be tacked down. 

 

And right after knitting, it kind of looked like something you drag out of the mouth of a dog, but I knew that a good strong blocking will do wonders. 

Instead of the diagonal pattern on the edge, I used corrugated ribbing, with the two yellow color.

At the same time, I left the black out of the top.

Instead of a plate, I used an old, big tinbox ( I bought it from Ikea, decades ago).

It blocked out beautifully.

So it was a fussy knit, but I learned so much from it.

Pattern: BzzzzzTam

Yarn: DROPS Fabel and Flora (the yellow one is Flora)

Needles: Knit Pro 2,5 mm and 3 mm.

Modelled photos: Norbert Varga @Bodeszphoto