According to my Ravelry account this Honey Bee Sweater was finished in July last year. Yesterday was the first time that Summer has worn it. Cue eye roll! I think we’re at the tipping point of not wearing handmade for a while. Eeeep!
I knitted this sweater during our break to Harp Cottage last year. We had such a lovely time and I have happy memories of knitting this in the sun at the cottage or whilst out and about drinking coffee and eating cake and spending some much appreciated alone time with Dave.
I’m eternally grateful to school for planning a year six trip away, and to Nana, Grandad and the Newcastle cousins for taking care of a small boy and the fur babies to let us escape.
They’re doing the same this year at the end of June whilst the boy goes to Borwick Hall. Dave and I will be heading for Northumberland to the Folly at Middleton Hall. I think it’s an understatement to say I’m excited for the break!
Anyhoo…back to the sweater.
Whilst its unseasonably mild in Lancashire at the moment (although pretty grey and gloomy for the most part) this sweater needed a second layer underneath. I think I love it even more with this polo necked fine sweater. It’s not how we’d envisioned it being worn but she loves it like this.
The pattern is Honey Bee by Dani Sunshine. It’s such a lovely pattern and the honeycomb design at the front yoke is very simple to make.
I got so lucky with the buttons. They’re as close a colour match as I’m going to lay hands on in my neck of the woods. These are from Hobbycraft. Very accessible.
The honeycomb design really elevates an otherwise quite plain and simple knit. The rest of the sweater is stocking and garter stitch. As it’s knit in the round, once you’ve cleared the yoke, it’s mostly just simple knitting with the odd purl row thrown in
And, of course, the sleeves could easily be lengthened, should you prefer that.
The yarn is Sublime Extra Fine Merino Double Knit (489) Riviera. It’s a lovely soft yarn for smallish people to wear. It gets a lot of use in my knitting circle for children’s knits as it’s not too spendy, has super colours and is easy to find. It’s washable and hardwearing and just generally everything you’d want for a child’s sweater.
This particular pack was gifted to me by The Coven (my knitterly pals) during a stash clear, and there was plenty to make a sweater for Summer.
I normally prefer her in stronger colours because her colouring is so soft, she can look washed out. But this blue is pretty on her, and with the navy, it’s just perfect.
I’m hoping she’ll still want hand made, but I’m feeling the influence of “the cool girls’ at school. Its a struggle between wanting her to maintain her individuality in the face of peer pressure, and, on the flip side, not making her any more of a target for bullies and mean girls.
It’s a tough one. All bases are covered at the moment with some slightly ‘trendy’ shop bought stuff added to the mix. But I’m also thinking that maybe it’s an opportunity for us to be creative and for me to delve deeper into styles and fabrics that will pass muster with the school crowd whilst still having her own individual stamp on them. Keep everything crossed…I’m not sure I’ll pull it off!
My eldest daughter will be 50 in April. When she was 13 or 14 I offered to make her something and she started to cry. The story that emerged from the sobbing was about a girl in her class at school who had worn a skirt that everybody admired. However when asked where it was from and she said her mum had made it, she was subject to much nasty scorn and cruel insults. Apparently it was felt that she was copying Benetton (very trendy at the time). When I pointed out that the skirt was nice and she herself had liked it, she acknowledged the stupidity but, even so, she didn’t want anything made by me. Fast forward to today and she regularly wears two cardigans and two pairs of socks that I knitted for her as well as her striped Queen’s Park Rangers hat that she wears to home matches. It’s a pity that the same kind of meanness still goes on. I naively thought that as crafts are so big on social media, there would be more acceptance and even admiration.
Oh that’s so sad! Unfortunately things haven’t moved on one jot! Social media makes things worse because they are bombarded with images. And although we shield Summer from it because she’s way too young, other parents don’t. I know of 10 year olds with their own instagram accounts who watch Love Island, and hero worship the contestants. The world has gone mad!
A lovely sweater and Summer looks so grown up all of a sudden which, of course, is part of the problem as she is of an age to be subject to peer pressure. If she stops wanting to wear handmade I suppose you’ll have to go with it but it will only be a passing phase I’m sure – by the time she’s 20 or so she’ll be begging you to make stuff for her ? How patient are you?
The good thing is I have plenty of other stuff to keep me occupied! So I can hold the line until she’s ready to come back to it.
I just wish peer pressure wasn’t such a thing!
My kid never wanted to wear my knitted (or sewn) items. But now that I’ve had time to accept it, I realize, that is SO her loss! 🙂 This is a great look – very practical and also sporty/sweet. I can’t get over Summer’s lovely hair!
It’s an odd one. It’s lovely that she’s growing up and working on finding her sartorial voice. Awful that she’s feeling pressure. And I’m pretty sure she’ll come back to handmade at some point. Her hair is lovely! So much of it. And with this weekends birthday highlights, even more gorgeous!