Author Archives: Queen Bee Knits

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About Queen Bee Knits

Living in Maine, knitting, baking and loving my family. Please be kind!

My Boy is Going to Rock the Boat!

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This is a proud day for me. My number one (and only) son just called to share that he’s been offered a job working for a cruise line. He’s a lighting technician, having studied lighting for theater for four years in college. He’ll be in charge of cleaning and setting and fixing any lighting on the ship. Cool, huh? And they’ll pay him, feed him four squares a day and house him. He’s thrilled to be heading out to sea in June and into the real world.

That makes three for me! The first two kids, daughters, are also working and have been doing so since they graduated from college. Not sure what I did to encourage their ability to head off into the real world under their own steam, but somehow the parenting that I offered worked. They’re productive and (most of the time) happy adults! Yay for them … and Yay for me, too!

Wishing my boy a bon voyage – what a way to start the adventure that is life!

Gone knitting!

Breastfeeding Mom War of Words

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http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_vwhob22n/uiconf_id/5590821

Who are we to criticize another woman for doing what she feels is best for her family and children?

I am annoyed and offended by those who feel it’s their place to decide whether breastfeeding a child is appropriate or not … unless it’s their own child and their own breasts they are deciding for. What’s the difference between judging this woman for nursing her three-year-old and a male (or female, for that matter) government representative who would vote against female reproductive rights? Isn’t it all just another form of judgement?

This woman (and any other woman) has a right to breastfeed her child/children until she decides not to nurse him any longer. She also has a right to choose NOT to nurse her child. If it’s working for her then shame on those who are holier than thou and would decide what she’s doing is “gross” or “inappropriate” or “abusive” or whatever other comments have been made. This is HER child! Do you want someone telling you how or what to feed your child?

Time Magazine put a very sensational picture on their cover. That’s what media does. This article is divisive and disempowers women by bringing their child-rearing choices into the light and offering those choices up for criticism. Parents have nursed children well into childhood for decades (dare I say, centuries?) The “family bed” or “attachment parenting” or “Dr. Spock” or “tough love” or “wet nurses” (among others) are all different ideas that parents have a CHOICE to follow or not.

Mind your own business, ladies and gents. Be concerned about your very own (sometimes abominable) behavior. Stay involved in your own business and leave others alone. Worry about whether you’re texting while driving, if you are on Facebook at work, or whatever else you have control over in your own “house”.

We’d all be so much better off if we’d be supportive of our sisters’ rights to nurse their children and get off of our judgmental high horses.

OK. I’m done.

Gone knitting.

i(have a new)Phone

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I got an early Birthday gift from my sweetie and as a result, I’ve lost a day (and a half if I’m really being honest) of work with play … well, it’s sort of play and sort of brain exercise. 🙂

I have a new iPhone and I’m trying to figure out how to connect to the Cloud and get my emails to work and putting the calendar on it and all that good stuff.

Long story short, if you call me … I know I can answer the phone!

I feel like such a techie!

Gone knitting!

Hot! Lobster Claws … fresh out of the pot

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Hot, hot, hot weekend! We’re having June weather in May. It’s too hot to go outside and I dream of having a car with auto-start so I could get the A/C going before I have to leave. Are you figuring out that I dislike the heat? Even our back “sun room” is super hot … by the time I’m awake, it’s time to get out of there to my cooler Atelier!

My inside activities have been cleaning up and knitting … and knitting planning! I have several original patterns that I’ve written and have been “afraid” to put out for test knitting. Partly because I didn’t know how to do it … but I’ve found a Ravelry group that does test knitting and as soon as I knit my patterns one more time, off they’re going!

"Cooked Lobster" Mittens

First one to be leaving the fold is the “Cooked Lobster” mittens for children. This is one that I wrote after having bought a pattern that didn’t look like lobster claws at all! I love my pattern, though – complete with the knitted band … looks like it’s just out of the pot! And if it was just out of the pot, it would be steaming hot!

Gone knitting (in my cooler Atelier!)

 

Proof – on the needles and newly finished

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Here are the photos, as promised!

Socks for my Boy!

Socks for my boy in Trekking XXL (75% super wash wool, 25% polyamid). This yarn might be the most wonderful sock yarn ever but knitting with it has been a nightmare! The center-pull ball has been in knots from the first pull. Grrr! What a pain in the neck (or needles!) But the socks are looking good and the boy has asked for them (the third pair!) Promised for graduation in mid-June.

New yarn arrival!

Yes, you can ooooh and ahhhh!

I bought the Berroco Pure Pima and Cascade Yarns Fixation for two projects. The Berroco is for a cotton sweater (sleeveless tunic) for moi. The Fixation is for a pair or two of baby socks … trying a new pattern!

Also FO –

HUGE socks ... soon to be felted!

Two super huge socks all ready to be felted. These are for my Etsy shop at the end of the summer. One lavender and one multi-colored, fall colors (green, orange, brown, purple, burgundy) both will be felted to size and be ready to go to some cold tootsies!

Flower Power Dish Cloth

Also trying to use up some of the cotton yarn that I’ve been carrying around. This green turned into a dish cloth. Perhaps it will live in my kitchen (replacing the icky ones that are there) or perhaps it will be matched with a couple more and sold in my shop. We’ll see what I decide.

Cooked Lobster Mittens (a Queen Bee Knits Original Pattern)

Since I have a bunch of wonderful merino wool that I bought in Maine last summer, I decided to resurrect my original pattern and make some more Cooked Lobster Mittens. I love these cute little mittens for kids. I’ll be knitting up several small pairs (and knitting up the bands for the claws, too) for my shop. One down … if you want a pair in a specific size, best to request because I know they’ll fly off the shelves!

Meantime, a friend of mine and her partner welcomed to the world a beautiful baby girl yesterday. I’m thinking a pair of those lovely cabled baby booties needs to be knit up and sent to West Palm Beach! What yarn to use? What yarn to buy?

Oh, the challenges this Queen Bee faces every day! (The last was said in sarcasm … next, in all truth and sincerity) How lucky I am!

Got to wait for my camera battery to charge so I can post the pictures. For now, I’m gone knitting!

New on the Needles

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I bought some yummy cotton yarn to make myself a Drops knitted tunic that I saw somewhere online when I was wandering. The pattern is a free Ravelry download. The yarn was on sale (serious sale! I think it was $3.99 a skein!) at WEBS. It’s Berroco’s Pure Pima (color #2243 “Barely Blue”). I love that Jimmy Bean’s sent me a bag and matched the dye lots of the extra few skeins. It’s a pretty sky blue color with a bit of a gray undertone and I really like it. The pattern is found here!


Classic and simple patterning … I loved the yellow but my mother always said that when I wore yellow I looked green. I don’t want to look green!

Will be winding a skein and doing a swatch … because I know that if I don’t swatch, I will make the sweater in the wrong size! I guess I had best measure my chest, too … just in case! (Note to self – gauge is not for wussies!)

Also trying a pair of baby socks by Cat Bordhi – you can find out all about Cat at her website CatBordhi dot com. All of a sudden, I have an interest in knitting baby things … could be that there’s a new little niece or nephew in the oven!? Anyway, it’s the Baby Life Rings socks and they’re cuter than cute. Found some Cascade Yarns Fixation (also at WEBS) in a couple of colors … color #9030 (“denim”, if my memory serves) and color #9936 (“pacific”in really great ocean colors.) It looks like they’ll stay on the baby feet with three rings around the ankles. Always an issue for new parents, keeping feet on those wiggle pigs … I aim to please!

Already on the needles, my son’s socks. I’ll report on the yarn … because it’s not making this knitter happy. I’ve never had a ball of sock yarn “fight” with me quite so much! Promised by his graduation in June … who can believe that my baby will be graduating from college? And the baby blanket – reversible cables in a white acrylic yarn (to make it easier to wash over and over!)

Finished – a pair of lobster mittens (cooked, of course!) and two pairs of slipper socks. Also finished is a dishcloth … ours are getting pretty yucky! Photos will come soon … maybe tomorrow!

Grateful for fingers that work.

Gone knitting!

En Français

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I have a French daughter.

OK … so she’s not really my daughter by birth but she feels like she’s one of my children. And she’s really French – born in France, lives in Paris.

Reunion 2011

Last summer Flo and her family (husband, Francois and baby boy, Oscar) arrived for a visit in Maine. It had been years since I’d seen her. Lots of years! Enough time for her to go from teenager to business woman, to wife and then mother.

We had a very sweet reunion in Maine … this picture is of the two of us in Bangor airport. What fun it was to see her again.

Today they’re coming back over and to Florida. I am leaving to meet them at the airport in a couple of minutes and the anticipation is making me crazy – crazier than usual! They’ll be here with us for a couple of days and then they’re headed to Miami and to see a bit of the state.

Boulette 2011

Last year in Maine it was freezing cold and rainy. Today in Florida it’s super hot and humid. Warm enough for a swim! Last year, Boulette was just starting to think about walking and he had a bath in the kitchen sink. This year he’ll be walking and dancing and we have a tub in this house. And a pool (I bought him some swimmies!)

I can hardly wait!

You say April, I say …

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Happy Birthday!!!

The end of April signals a lot of things to people. All over the world, spring is springing … flowers and trees are coming alive after a long winter (well, it wasn’t so long this year!) In my family, the end of April signals birthdays.

Today it’s my nephew’s birthday … Happy Birthday, Reid! My youngest brother, Jeff, turns … well, let’s just say he’s hitting a big birthday next year. And on Friday, my baby turns 22! Three great men (one’s still a boy) who were born at  the end of April.

I wish I had a photograph of the three of them together … but I don’t, so a picture of my son (one of my favorites and likely his least favorite) will have to suffice.

Happy Birthday to all!

Gone knitting!

More Photos of my Nuno Scarf … All Done!

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Finished Product - I love it!

Felted and Fringed ... had to try both!

 

A Cluster or two of Flowers

 

My Wavy Little Bee

 

Around my Neck!

Finished! Yay!

This summer I’m going to take supplies up to our house in Maine and make a few more of these lovelies … maybe with my girls or my sisters-in-law … only time will tell. But I know I have found a new “addiction”! (Thanks, Terri!)

Gone knitting!