There is an old Celtic custom that bees must be told of changes in the households of their keepers. The bees might leave or stop producing if they’re not kept in the loop! I was inspired to design this shawl by “Go Tell the Bees I am Gone,” the title of the upcoming book in the Outlander series.

These crescent shawls begin with a cable cast on at the lower edge and feature a honeybee stitch motif and honeycomb-inspired lace edging. (Why a cable cast on? So you don’t run out of tail with a 350+ stitch long tail cast on!) The crescent is shaped with simple short rows. No wrapping at the turns is required. The shawls make gradient yarns shine, and are also lovely in semi-solid colors. Knit in fingering weight yarn, you may choose either 430 yards for a shawlette, or 645 yards for a larger shawl.

If you’re making the smaller shawlette, you’ll definitely want at least 430 yards. I used all but 18 yards of the 430 yard cake, so it’s pretty close! I added a shorter eyelet edging to the pattern in order to finish with my yardage. I also added info in the pattern to skip the last short rows if you’re running short on the shawlette.

Note about the chart: The full instructions for the bee motif are shown in the section under the abbreviations, as well as in a video. The chart will be helpful after you after learn the stitch, for placement of all the elements, but I wanted knitters to go to the written instructions the first time through. The unwinding of the yarn overs was too complicated to fit in the little chart key box!

This pattern is also available through KnitPicks, and looks great in Stroll Gradient.

This pattern is also available through my Payhip store, link here.