Save the Bees, please

I haven’t done much of an introduction yet to introduce myself, so maybe this post will answer a few questions as to who I am and why I’m creating a blog.

Writing and storytelling has proven to be therapeutic and adept at building a culture of understanding where readers can check their musings and thoughts with the authors and through this culture sometimes comes connection. In learning the housekeeping and technical side of blogging, I have neglected sharing many of the parts of myself that come together to make me. I promise, it will come. But to begin with an introduction, I’ll explain a bit about “Why a creativity Blog?”

I have always been drawn to creativity, artistry, music, and beauty of any sort. We probably all are when we find our unique style. In college I started as a music performance major, playing the violin. Finding at that time that I loved music and violin as a hobby but wanted to pursue other interests as well led me to look into community service and healthcare. I became a Paramedic and later a nurse.

The experience of working in healthcare roles through Covid 19 was challenging to say the least. Fear of unknowns at the beginning, and worsening distrust of the cogs in motion in a giant clock of pandemic machinery, coupled with social distancing and isolation created an emotional fatigue that was difficult to overcome.

My work throughout the pandemic was to care for critically sick or injured people as a flight Paramedic and a nurse in the hospital. As a Paramedic, I work for a flight service company in Northern Arizona where a large part of my job is to care for Navajo patients on the reservation. During this time however, my work felt like a losing battle because of the severity of illness that the patients were experiencing, especially in the early days of the pandemic where, in the areas I was flying we were seeing the second highest rates of covid death per 1000 people, second only to New York City at the time. Many died waiting to be transported off of the reservation to higher levels of care, some of the sickest died in our care and many more survived their own illness, only to lose family members and loved ones to the virus. It was a frightening time full of feelings of guilt for leaving my family to go to work and potentially contract the virus, followed by shifts worked to the point of exhaustion and ending with the same feelings of guilt for leaving my coworkers at work to return home to my family. I started to feel like a busy bumblebee because the important tasks at hand were never complete. I was asked to compose a Ted talk about this experience and titled it The Courage to Be a Beginner. I also wrote a Poem for my coworkers then as a reminder of some of the struggles that at that time felt impossible and some of the successes that we started to see as we continued to care for and fly these critically sick patients. The poem is called Impossible Bumblebees. You can read it here if you’d like.

Impossible Bumblebees

It’s impossible for a bumblebee to fly,

You have to keep reminding them

That their bodies are GIANT, and their wings are too small,

but they still might not comprehend why.

Don’t forget to tell them they couldn’t

and shouldn’t go anyplace tall,

Their tiny wings can’t be trusted,

and if they try they might certainly fall.

There are forces involved, like gravity.

A fight against physics too.

And if you think you’re strong enough to lift yourselves,

Well, I have some news for you.

But…There are some bumblebees who don’t listen.

With unhealthy doses of “maybe.”

They’re difficult, they talk back, they’re smart,

And their ideas are a little bit crazy.

They rarely sleep, but constantly think,

They’re so brave they sometimes scare others.

And they think they can help make new life grow,

moving pollen one place to another.

They fight for things you could never predict,

They want to work hard and then…harder.

They say their ideas aren’t really crazy at all,

And that safety is kind of like armor.

They want to help so many others,

and they’re proficient at their type of care.

But one must ask the preposterous question,

“You want to do THIS up there?”

Their motto is uncompromising,

“We’ll all make it home alive.”

Because the strength of the hive is the Bee,

and the pride of the bee is the hive.

You can’t make them believe they can’t fix it,

it’s a drop in the bucket, that’s all.

But they see themselves grouped together.

It’s the rest of the world that seems small.

At first the buzzing is quiet,

tentative, humble, yet proud.

Now the sound has grown to a rumble.

How did this little group get so loud?

You can’t teach them a thing,

They’re convinced they won’t fail,

And they actually believe

That those tiny small wings can lift anything,

Even something bigger than themselves.

They have so many impossible plans and dreams,

and they say, “No, We don’t want to just fly.”

But you can’t teach them about impossible..

They’re already in the sky.

Why Crochet?

I started crocheting as a pretty young kid. I think I was in the second grade and my Grandma Sherrie would teach me while watching daytime soap operas as we sat in rocking chairs. She was always working on a beautiful full sized afghan or blanket for a baby on the way. I was always working on a hot pad or a washcloth. I would sometimes watch my Grandma crochet and marvel at how fast she was working and that she sometimes didn’t even have to watch what she was doing. Over the years, I started to get better and made hundreds of lace doilies that my Mother would proudly display in our almost 100 year old home.

Life got so busy in college years that I stopped crocheting and didn’t begin again until I had children of my own. Crocheting for children will always be my favorite type of crocheting to do, whether it’s making a tiny little outfit for a newborn or having my children look through a pattern book of amigurumi toys and saying, “Mom! Will you Pleeeaaase make this one for me?” The fulfillment of making something handmade for little ones is such a highlight for me.

It had been a couple of years since I had crocheted anything, but maybe it was the anxiety of the situation or the loss of face to face interactions that seemingly would never end. During this time, many people found solace in creativity, whether it was learning new languages with future hopes for travel, or learning new crafts and talents while stuck in isolation at home. It became a worldwide phenomenon that creativity, in every conceivable form, was uniting and healing people and brought with it hope for a better world ahead. I found that healing peace when I picked my crochet hooks back up and it seemed that my mind was so anxious to focus on something different than the ever looming healthcare crises that were permanent mental fixtures for me. I began to find patterns and tutorials online where others were sharing what they had learned and it was so inspiring that I decided to try my hand at pattern creation for crochet too. It’s difficult. I’ve found that the challenges with creating an original idea and how to make it into a pattern that crocheters at all levels can understand is something that will take practice, just like crocheting. And the technology side of blogging and sharing is also a new element, but I’m learning as I go. With some time I’ll have a lot of different patterns as well as other, non crochet ideas to share so please stay tuned and keep creating.

I’m sharing a bumblebee necklace pattern and I hope that when you make it, you’ll think of the Impossible bumblebees in your life and the ways that you have been able to take flight during difficult times.

Impossible Bumblebee Crochet necklace:

I saw an idea for a bumblebee necklace a while back and decided to try to make a pattern for one using embroidery thread.

Materials needed:

Embroidery thread colors of choice

2.25mm crochet hook

Fiberfill

1 small and 1 medium sized wood bead for the necklace.

Bumblebee Instructions:

Rnd 1: With black embroidery thread and 2.25 mm hook, 6 SC in a magic loop. Pull the loose end snugly to close the loop. (6)If you are new to using the magic loop or need a quick refresher, check out my helpful tutorials page here.

Rnd 2: 2 SC in each St around. (12)

Rnd 3: SC in each ST around. (12) At the last stitch of the round, color change to Gold. You can leave the black thread attached at the back of the work.

Make a loop large enough for the medium sized wood bead to pass through at one end of the black embroidery floss and knot it securely.

Rnd 4: SC in each ST around. (12) Color change to black at the last ST of the round. You can leave gold attached at the back of the work.

Rnd 5-6: SC in each ST around. (12) At the end of Round 6, color change to gold, leaving black attached at the back of the work.

Rnd 7: SC in each ST around(12). Color change to black. Fasten off gold and secure loose end.

Rnd 8: SC in each ST around. (12) Stuff lightly with a small amount of fiberfill.

Rnd 9: Decrease around. (6) Leave a tail for weaving the opening closed.

Weave tail through Back loops only of each of the 6 remaining ST. Pull snugly to close the loop. Weave in the end. Stitch the small wooden bead to the back of the bee.

Large Wing: (Make 2)

Rnd 1: With silver embroidery thread, 6 SC in a magic loop. Pull loose end snugly to close the loop. (6)

Rnd 2: 2 SC in each ST around.(12) Fasten off, leaving a tail for stitching.

Small Wing: (Make 2)

Rnd 1: With Silver embroider thread, 6 SC in a magic loop. Pull loose end snugly to close the loop. (6)

Rnd 2: SC in each ST around. (6) Fasten off, leaving a tail for stitching.

Using the tails for stitching, stitch the wings to the sides of the bee. Clip and secure ends.

Necklace:

Make a loop in the end of the black embroidery thread large enough for the medium sized bead to pass through the loop. Knot it securely.

CH 110. Fasten off, leaving a tail to fasten the medium bead for necklace closure. Thread the bead attached to the bee’s back through the chain.

Attach the medium wooden bead to the end of chain securely and wear by passing the medium bead through the loop on the other end of the chain.

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, you are a trooper. Or just maybe, you love bumblebees as much as I do. If that’s the case, here’s another idea for using embroidery thread to embroider a bumblebee in flight on a pair of jeans.

Copyright

This pattern and its images are copyright protected and the sole property of Abby Holmgren. Please do not redistribute, transfer, or sell the pattern, or alter it to claim as your own. You may sell any products you create from this pattern. Please credit the designer by linking online listings.