One of my regular Friday afternoon workshop attendees went for a class at Hill Country Weavers in Austin, Texas and she spent I can't remember how many hours learning about how to make this shawl. Several months later she hadn't started the shawl. It's quite an involved pattern which requires some concentration and lots of counting so it's maybe not ideal for a lively group workshop setting.
But anyway when I heard Claudia on her Crochet Luna podcast talk about the Hotel of Bees crochetalong that Sandra from Cherry Heart and Sam from Betsy Makes were organizing I thought this was a great way to get my friend going with her project and obviously I had to join her so that I could help with any queries along the way.
I absolutely loved the pattern because it is comprised of many different techniques - cute puff stitch for the bees, overlay technique for the wings and fillet crochet for the honeycomb pattern. I enjoyed the challenge of all that counting. It's also a shape that I like. I like my wear my shawls around my shoulders with a knot at the front or the corner so not every shawl works this way.
My yarn choice was Queensland Collection Savannah which is a linen/silk mix. I was a bit worried because it's not soft BUT it's not scratchy either. I haven't used linen before to make a garment. It's starting to get quite hot here in Houston. Wool just doesn't work. Anyway I wore the shawl into work on Wednesday, a rather hot humid day and I am happy to report that it felt great! I think people will be seeing rather a lot of my Hotel of Bees Shawl this summer!
Anyway do go have a look at all the marvellous Hotel of Bees shawls on Ravelry. There are 355 projects to look at as I write this. And/or check out #hobcal on Instagram if that's your thing. I would highly recommend that you make it too!
Here's the Audio Podcast
