No Mow May Bee

This little bee was made to raise awareness of 'no mow may' - a project that aims to encourage people to leave their lawns to grow long over the month of May, in order to encourage the growth and diversity of plant and animal populations.

Difficulty:

Easy

You will need:

• dk yarn in yellow, black, and light blue
• A white piece of felt
• White sewing cotton
• A barbecue skewer
• Green embroidery thread
• Polyester toy stuffing
• A darning needle
• A regular sewing needle
• A pair of scissors

Note:

• 'fasten off neatly' refers to a special way of fastening off which is neater and makes it easier to see where you should be crocheting on the next round (also known as invisible fastening off). This involves pulling up your yarn through your stitch, threading the yarn underneath the second stitch from where you pulled your yarn up, then threading your yarn back through the top of this stitch and down through the back of the work. There is a very helpful site that explains it clearly found here. Just make sure when you do this that you thread your needle through the SECOND stitch after the last stitch you made, otherwise you will end up with an extra stitch which may mean that all of the following rounds are out of line with each other.

For the body:

with black dk yarn make a magic loop with 4sc
Round 1: make 2sc in each st (8sc)
Round 2: (sc, make 2sc in the next st)  4 times (12sc)
Round 3: (sc2, make 2sc in the next st) 4 times (16sc)
Fasten off neatly

Fasten on to one of these sts with yellow dk yarn

Round 4: sc in this same st and the next 2sts, make 2sc in the next st, (sc3, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times (20sc)
Round 4: sc2, make 2sc in the next st, (sc4, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times, sc2
Round 5: (sc5, make 2sc in the next st) 4 times (28sc)
Fasten off neatly

Rejoin to one of these sts with black yarn
Round 6: sc in this same st and the next 27sts

Rounds 7 - 8: (2 rounds) sc in each st

Fasten off neatly

Rejoin to one of these sts with yellow yarn
Round 9: sc in this same st and the next 27sts

Rounds 10 - 11: (2 rounds) sc in each st

Fasten off neatly

Rejoin to one of these sts with black yarn
Round 12: sc in this same st and the next 27sts

Fasten off

Stuff

For the head:
With yellow yarn ch10

Round 1: sc in the 2nd chain st from hook and the next 7 chain sts. Make 3sc in the last chain st, then sc in the back of each of the previous 7 chain sts you crocheted into in turn. Make 2sc in the back of the first chain st you crocheted into (20sc)
Round 2: make 2sc in the first st, sc7, make 2sc in each of the next 3 chain sts, sc7, make 2sc in each of the last 2 chain sts (26sc)
Round 3: sc, make 2sc in the next st, sc7, (sc, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times, sc7, (sc, make 2sc in the next st) twice (32sc)
Round 4: sc2, make 2sc in the next st, sc7, (sc, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times, sc7, (sc, make 2sc in the next st) twice (38sc)
Rounds 5 - 9: (5 rounds) Sc in each st
Round 10: Sc, sc2tog, sc11, sc2tog, sc4, sc2tog, sc12, sc2tog, sc2 (34sc)

These next rounds are slightly more than 1 round. In this case the start of the following rounds are shifted slightly (if you are using stitch markers to make each row you should place them after the last sc2tog st of the row in question)

Round 11: (Over 1 round) Sc2, sc2tog, sc8, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc7, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog (28sc)
Round 12: (Over 1 round) sc2, sc2tog, sc5, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog, sc4, sc2tog, sc2, sc2tog (22sc)
Round 13: Sc, sc2tog, sc3, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog, sc3, sc2tog, sc, sc2tog (16sc)
Round 14: (Over 1 round) (Sc, sc2tog) 5 times, sc2tog (10sc)

Stuff
Round 15: Sc2tog 5 times (5sc)
Fasten off

Sew this to the top of the body

For the eyes:
Use black yarn to embroider eyes to the front of the head

For the arms (make 2):
With black dk yarn make a magic loop with 6sc
Rounds 1 - 5: (5 rounds) sc in each st
Fasten  off

Stuff and sew these to the sides of the body

For the antennae (make 2):
With black dk yarn make a magic loop with 6sc
Round 1: (sc, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times (9sc)
Rounds 2 - 3: (2 rounds) sc in each st
Round 4: Sc2tog 3 times (6sc)
Rounds 5 - 7: (3 rounds) sc in each st
Fasten off

Stuff and sew these to the top of the head

For the wings (make 2):
With light blue yarn ch4
Round 1: sc in the 2nd chain st from hook, then sc in the next chain st. Make 3sc in the first chain st you made, then sc in the back loop of each of the previous chain sts you crocheted into. ch1, turn (7sc)
Round 2: sc2, make 2sc in each of the next 3 sts, sc2. ch1, turn (10sc)
Round 3: sc2, (sc, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times, sc2. ch1, turn (13sc)
Round 4: sc2, (sc2, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times, sc2. ch1, turn(16sc)
Round 5: sc2, (sc3, make 2sc in the next st) 3 times, sc2. ch1, turn (19sc)

Fasten off

Sew these to the sides of the body, as shown in the image below.

For the banner:

Use 2 strands of embroidery thread to embroider your desired message onto a piece of white felt. The message I have used is "#NoMowMay". Once this is done cut around the message to create a small banner. The size will depend on the size of your letters and the message you have chosen.

You then need to cut a bamboo skewer down to about 12cm long. Use white sewing cotton to sew the bamboo skewer to the back of your banner. This can be done by making small repeated stitches through the felt and then over the top of the skewers, as shown in the image below. This should hold the banner in place securely, but you may wish to add a dab of PVA glue to ensure it stays attached.

Finally you need to attach the banner to the bee by pushing the end into the hand. This should keep the banner  in place, but depending on how tightly you have attached the wings you may wish to add a small amount of PVA glue to ensure it stays in place.

That's all from this pattern. I encourage you to place your bee in a place where its going to be visible, to help spread awareness of this movement! I placed mine in my local park- just make sure if you leave it in a public place that you check on it every so often to make sure it hasn't become loose (which may result in damage to wildlife)

If you'd like to keep up to date with the projects I'm currently working on including a few more craftivism projects related to this one), you can follow me on my Instagram. If you have any questions you can message me there, or else leave a comment below or on my Ravelry page.

You are very welcome to sell finished products, but please don't re-post this pattern or claim it as your own. Thank you!