Queen Bee Knits

Knitting, Living, Loving, Baking, Tips, Tools and Idle Chatter

Making and Baking

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

Today I’m changing up my first photograph. This is the second loaf of bread that I’ve baked since the New Year. The bread store that we’ve been enjoying for as long as we’ve lived here full time has closed. The city is building an affordable housing complex and will demolish the Universal Bread Bakers building. We have missed Adrian’s bread and had to figure something out to replace it and I decided to try the NY Times “No-Knead Bread” recipe. It’s simple ingredients and quick to mix but it takes a lot of time to let it do its thing until you can bake it: 12-18 hours of rising time, 2 hours and 15 minutes of resting and rising time after that and then you can bake it in 45 minutes. BUT it’s really good!

I also baked Hermits today (while I was waiting for the bread to complete its second rise. The recipe is a really old one and I love having it and using it. It came from my paternal grandmother’s recipe box which I have since passed on to my cousin. Granny Rockwell was a Cordon Bleu- trained cook. I’m not sure how she did that but her family was privileged even way back when. Granny was born in the late 1800s and was a student at Smith College in 1911 when her father took her on a “world tour”. I assume that’s when she took classes in France, but I’m not sure. A side note: when she died and we were cleaning out her house, we found a mint green satin cape from Paris in the attic. What I would give to have that today. I also found a drawer full of glass eyes. I never knew she had one and still don’t know how she lost her eye.

I’ve had a couple of FOs in knitting and sewing, too. Last week I sewed four linen dish towels. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s a start digging into the fabric and projects that I’ve accumulated over the years. I also washed, dried and ironed some fabric for a baby quilt and a tunic for me.

I loved (loved!) knitting the Double Thick Hat pattern. A customer told me about it and I really enjoyed it and the yarn, Juniper Moon Farm’s Herriot Fine, is sooooo wonderful to work with. I have the equivalent of another hat left over and will cast on another one soon.

I also finished my second pair of socks for 2024. I used deeply stashed yarn from the Maine Fiber Frolic that I have to have been carrying around with me for 10 or more years. It feels so good to be knocking down the stash. I default to the Yankee Knitter sock pattern and love it so much and I did that again for these socks. They’re simple, plain socks so the busy colorful yarn can take center stage. The yarn is from Maine Woods Yarn in superwash sock colorway is Maine Lobstah. I think it looks like a cooked lobstah!

I’m still working my way down the sleeve of my traditional Norwegian sweater. I’ve put the one sleeve on hold and am working down the second one. I hope that I can then do both sleeves’ colorwork and cuff. I’m not sure why this is such a challenge to knit but I am going to believe that the old pattern from another country where knitting is a part of the fabric of the culture assumes that the knitter knows certain traditional techniques. I will master this bit but it sure does intimidate me. I don’t want to get it wrong after all this knitting … and I sure hope I’m not allergic to this wool yarn! (I put on my “Patsy’s Traveling Sweater” the other day and had to take it off because it made me cough and my eyes were running. It’s made in Plymouth’s Gina, now discontinued. I’ll try to wear it once more and will give it away if I can’t wear it.)

My friend and co-worker, Glenda, and I were twins at work last Friday. We both wore our Nancy’s Vest that we knitted together in a self-proclaimed KAL. We both loved the pattern because it taught us a few new techniques without being too difficult and we love the Manos of Uruguay Milo yarn.

On my needles: a new pair of socks using another deeply stashed sock yarn by Socks Yeah! by CoopKnits In a peachy colorway. I am using Hermione’s Everyday Socks pattern by Erica Lueder which is a free pattern on Ravelry. It’s a simple 4-round repeat pattern and I find it seriously potato-chippy. I can’t seem to stop knitting them. I love the yarn. LOVE it! I originally got this yarn with a collection from the UK from Arnall-Culliford Knitwear for a series of lessons called A Year of Techniques (which went on for three years with three different books, all different yarns and patterns. It was wonderful!) If my memory serves, the peachy colorway was to have been one of three colors for a knitted animal. I didn’t want to knit the animal and so here we are.

And as I mentioned earlier, I’m working down the second sleeve of my Norwegian pullover. Progress is being made. I’ll be casting on a new project with Glenda soon for our new spring KAL project. It’s fun knitting with a friend! We will be knitting Susan B. Anderson’s Christopher Bunny. Something fun and a little bit different for heading into spring. I have to finish my sweater soon so I can start knitting another new project. AND I will be pulling my pink mittens out again – the first one needs to be embroidered and finished and the second mitten, too. So many projects, so little time. Ha! Ha!

This is my weekend to work again so I won’t be knitting on Saturday but Sunday I will give myself the day to relax and knit. I’ll need it after three days at work. For now I’m signing off and heading over to my knitting chair. It was a beautiful day on the lake.

Gone knitting.

A Little Dab’ll Do Ya

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

I’ve had a busy and productive couple of days at home and I’m feeling really good about it and today is a beautiful, clear, bluebird day which always helps my attitude and outlook. Plus I got a chance to facetime with my littlest love, my granddaughter, this morning before her nap … and that always makes me so happy.

I’ve been baking this week. Not sure where this came from because my baking mojo has been pretty much gone but it’s back. At least for now. My sweet hubby has been bumming because our very most favorite bread baker has closed his business and hasn’t re-opened. We loved Adrian and Universal Bread Bakers in Waterville, ME. Adrian’s bread is/was the best bread anywhere around. No question. He made baguettes, batards and boules in the French way, with crusty crust and chewy dense insides and the prices were incredibly reasonable considering the work that goes into them. But, sadly, the business was vacated because the building is going to be knocked down to make way for a large affordable housing building and Adrian hasn’t reopened (at least not yet.) All social media says that Universal Bread is permanently closed. If that’s the case then Waterville has really lost a beloved business and my sweet hubby has lost his favorite bread.

On Sunday I started the dough for the bread. I used the NY Times Baking recipe, No Knead Bread. While it takes quite a bit of time to get to the part where you can bake the bread, the process is simple and quite contemplative. I mixed up the ingredients and covered the bowl with plastic wrap (and a clean cotton towel because the plastic wrap doesn’t stick) and put it in our kitchen on top of the toaster oven where the dog can’t get it. I also made a batch of my famous blueberry muffins. In my family we call the recipe Uncle Jeff’s Muffins because when my kids were little, my brother made them blueberry muffins. They are the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had and the recipe is such a special one. I bake them and freeze them and then my hubby can have his muffin a day and they’re not in my line of vision. On Monday I floured my kitchen counter and got the bread dough out, folded it onto itself a few times, formed it into a ball and let it sit for a couple of hours. Ran to the post office to mail a pair of mittens and then home to bake the bread.

You bake this recipe in a dutch oven which is likely why the crust is so wonderful. BUT mine got a little bit burnt on the very bottom. Our oven runs hot and even though the temperature was at 450 degrees, it burned the bottom of the bread. Next time, I’ll add a sheet of parchment paper to the pan with the dough. The bread is delicious! Hubby is happy and so am I. He deserves to have good bread that he likes and I’m happy to make it for him.

Yesterday, I also mixed up a batch of the NY Times Baking’s Bran and Chia Muffins. I have a bag of bran that has been languishing in my baking cupboard and it was time to use it up … and I almost did. The recipe is simple enough but used all the bowls. Ha! Ha!

Today has been absolutely gorgeous! And this morning I did a bit of house cleaning while I waited for the bran muffins to bake. The recipe made 18 muffins and they’re also in the freezer for my hubby – I left two out for breakfast tomorrow and I ate one for my breakfast today. I like them well enough. They may need a little bit of butter and jam to really make them taste perfect. We’ll see what the muffin man has to say about them tomorrow.

I also got some sewing done today. I opened the Pandora’s box that is my fabric cupboard in my atelier a week or two ago and found (again) all of the various projects that I had started, purchased, and planned. There are a lot. I decided that I really have to take some time every week to make some of them and finish others. I have two bags/pouches, some small zipper pouches, a wall hanging-size paper-pieced quilt and more. I found a huge piece of flannel yardage that I was going to make a scarf with, a couple of pieces of linen toweling, and a couple of old linen shirts in need of repair. Today I started to make a dent in the stack. I cut and sewed the linen toweling into four linen dish towels, I mended the two linen blouses, and I got an Advent calendar cut, pinned, sandwiched and all ready to sew. I still need to cut and pin onto the back, a hanging sleeve before it’s quilted and bound.

I’ve got several lengths of fabric in the washer right now with the linen towels, blouses and a dirty project bag. Once washed and dried, I’ll press them all and they’ll be a baby quilt and a tunic for me. I really want to practice what I learned at camp last summer and adventure out into the realm of sewing my own clothes. I just need to take the time and challenge myself.

I’ve been working on my knitting, too, of course. I’ve reached the decreases of the second half of the hat. The colors are somewhat boring but they were in my stash. I may have enough to make a second hat, too. The yarn, Herriot Fine by Juniper Moon Farm, is SOOOO soft. I absolutely love knitting with it and I think the fabric that it’s making is going to be soft and warm, too. AND it won’t make my forehead itch.

I’ve gotten the first sleeve on my Norwegian pullover to the point where it’s time to do the colorwork. I’ve decided that I am going to knit the second sleeve now to the same point and then do both colorwork sections and the final cuff ribbing. I’ve got to start another hank of the yarn anyway because I won’t be able to finish both sleeves without it. I figure that’s my chance to get both sleeves to the same point and, by rights, have them both be the same. I hope. I did try it on and the sleeve decreases are fine at decreasing every fifth round and I have sixty-four stitches on my needles which should work with my 8-stitch repeat chart. I’ll be so happy to have this finished.

#29 Classic Socks by Yankee Knitter Designs

My “cooked lobster” socks are a little more than half-way finished. I finished the first sock and am on to the leg of the second. I love this yarn. I’ve had it for more than 8 years and it’s traveled from Maine to Florida and back to Maine in that time. I know I bought it when we were living here in the summers and winter in Florida. I was going to make only solid-color socks for me but I’m going to make an exception for these.

Gone knitting!

FOs and Re-Dos

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

We are having some snow again today and we had some ice on Thursday. It’s winter in Maine and I have to say that I am a happy girl. I love the winter and I love the snow. I feel like the media has been really good at scaring the pants off of us and now we are told to stay home even at times when the driving isn’t bad. I headed out to work on Thursday after we got a quarter inch of ice and I had no trouble getting out of our driveway or getting to the store … and as my car slipped by the back door (ha! ha!) I decided that I’d park out front where nobody would have such a good opportunity to slip down the hill and into my car. I’m so grateful for my cleat-thingys that keep me upright on ice.

I’ve just finished sewing the perfect buttons on my Nancy’s Vest. It is finished. I wore it to work today buttonless and I love the way it fits. I also love the weight of the yarn and it’s soft and just enough gray and brown all at the same time.

So, now I have two vests … and there are going to be more of them in my future.

I pulled my sleeve out of my Women’s Favorite Genser again. In its first iteration, the sleeve decreases were too far apart and the sleeve would have been too long and the stitch count off for the colorwork before the cuff ribbing. On the second iteration, I realized that the increases were too close together which made the sleeve too narrow too soon. Now on my third try, I’m decreasing “in the middle” of the other two and I think it’s looking good. Cross your fingers.

I’m working on my Cooked Lobstah socks and my Double Thick Hat. They’re both easy patterns that I can nearly knit with my eyes closed. I may have mentioned that I hate myself in hats. The only ones that I wear are saggy baggy hats that fall down over my eyes. I only wear them if I have to go out with wet hair in the winter or if I am spending time outside like when I clean off my car or help shovel. But that’s the long way of saying that even though I am making this hat for me, I may decide that I hate it. AND I hope I don’t hate it but it’s more than possible. BUT I love the yarn! I’m knitting with Juniper Moon Farm’s Herriot Fine. I had two hanks of it in my stash, they were a gift from our KFI salesman at the store. He always sent something for “the girls”. (ha! ha!) Herriot Fine is absolutely gorgeous to work with. It’s soft and comes in lots of pretty colors. I have a blue and a creamy oatmeal color. Not thrilling colors but if I love the hat, I can worry about different colors later.

And the socks are just my “run-of-the-mill” socks using Yankee Knitter’s pattern #29. I love the pattern and have knit so many socks over the years that I practically know the pattern by heart. This crazy colorway that I bought at the Maine Fiber Frolic years (and years) ago. These socks will be a gift, as with the blue striped pair that I just finished.

I have a brand new knitter in my afternoon knitting class and today’s storm kept almost everyone home. It gave me an opportunity to help H. remember how to cast on and how to purl so she can try to make her first pair of mittens. She picked up purling really quickly and I feel pretty good sending her home to practice and I told her that if it doesn’t go well, it’s all good. Consider it an opportunity to practice! It’s a ribbed cuff and it can be frogged and re-knit and I told her that I’m re-knitting a sleeve for the third time.

Knitting offers us the opportunity to get used to making mistakes. I used to get frustrated and annoyed by making mistakes but now I can take them in stride and begin again. Forgiving yourself (and others) is a skill that is learned over time and knitting has helped me be more accepting of myself and my flaws. It’s also taught me to be more flexible and forgiving with others. I’m grateful for my sticks and string for having added so much joy to my life but I am also grateful for the lessons that it’s taught me. Life is good.

Gone knitting.

On and Off the Needles

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

We had a beautiful sunrise this morning and it’s been a sunny day. I saw the first couple of snowmobiles on the lake today and the number of ice fishermen was the highest yet. Lots of people out on the ice fishing – and they’re using the portable “ice fishing shacks”.

This morning I watered all of our plants and then headed to my studio. Down the rabbit hole I went … deleting old emails from my gmail accounts, responding to some newer ones and getting my calendar for the next week up to date. I called all of my kids (and spoke to one), my brothers and my sister-in-love in LA. I also called a cousin who I haven’t heard from in a long time. It feels good to delete a couple of years worth of emails.

Yesterday I drove a friend to Portland, ME to visit her husband who is in the hospital. She was happy to visit with her husband and I went off to the new Costco in Scarborough. What was I thinking? It was Saturday, for heaven’s sake. Costco was PACKED! But I got my photo taken, got my membership card and did a little bit of shopping. We’ve been living here in Maine since 2015 and I have missed their lamb chops, in particular. Yesterday we remedied that - I bought lamb chops (they’re huge, an inch or more high, the best anywhere!) and some fresh raspberries, some cheese and cookies for my sweet hubby. Just a few things and thank goodness because I forgot they don’t take all credit cards … but I had just enough cash! I did have to leave Costco for gas because I had to use a credit card. Ha! Ha! It was fun and I am looking forward to going back during the week.

I reunited with my friend at the hospital and got her back home and headed home myself. It was a nice day. And we had lamb chops for dinner!

I’ve got a few New Year’s FOs. I finished my Sophie Scarf and I wore it for the first time yesterday. It’s a very soft cashmere yarn so it was warm and soft to wear next to the skin. My yarn is a little heavier than they had written the pattern for but it seems to have worked.

My first pair of socks is complete. I knit these in a Patons Kroy yarn. They’re a man’s size 11 1/2 and I needed to add the third ball of yarn just a short way before I was finished. I’ll use the left-overs to make baby mittens for my daughter’s baby for next year. He’ll be ready for them then.

I also finished (the ends are now woven in, I promise) the Ragtop Mitts. They’re fingerless mitts that I knitted up in a random cake of Malabrigo Rios yarn that has been sitting in my stash for ages. I saw the pattern, that can be folded over or left long to keep your fingers warm. I like wearing fingerless mitts but when the steering wheel is cold in the winter, I like to have cold hands! I’ll be wearing mine long in the morning on the way to work.

I finished my Nancy’s Vest!

I will head into town tomorrow morning to see if the buttons for my vest have come in. Once attached, it’ll be done and done. I almost wore it on Friday but decided to wait until the buttons are sewn on. I will be wearing it to the store for my classes on Friday and hopefully my friend and co-worker, Glenda, will have hers done, too. We’ll be twins!

And what’s ON my needles?

I’m working on the sleeves of my Woman’s Favorite Genser. I had finished the majority of the knitting on the first sleeve but had too many stitches to work with the chart and was unsure how to knit a chart with the wrong number of stitches. So, I’ve frogged that sleeve and am knitting it again but with fewer rounds between decreases which will hopefully make the stitch count line up earlier. So far, so good. I love the color and I am looking forward to wearing it. It’s a DK weight which is a good weight for me to wear.

I started a new project, also with stashed yarn. I had two hanks of Juniper Moon Farms Herriot Fine; one is a blue color and the other is an oatmeal-y gray color and I caked them both up to make a double hat. The pattern is called Double Thick Hat. Basically, I’ll knit one hat that’s started with a provisional cast on and then start again with the second colorway and knit the second hat. This will be the project that I can work on and not think about … at least up to the decreases.

I’ve also started, or put back in the active projects bag, a pair of socks with a Maine yarn that I bought ages ago at the Maine Fiber Frolic. It’s a colorway called “Maine Lobstah”. I believe I bought it prior to moving up here year-round. I have learned about a new heel technique called the Strong Heel and I really want to try it. Since I think I’ll be keeping these, I’ll try it. A new customer at the store on Friday told me about the heel and it’s the one she uses all the time. She said it’s easy to remember. We shall see.

I keep pretty good records of all of my knitting projects, yarn, needles, etc. on my Ravelry projects page. I’m LindaR on Ravelry.

My baby orchid has sprouted a new flower stalk. I’m so excited to see it bloom again. This was a gift from my sweetie and it was in bloom when I got it … it’s been about a year since it’s bloomed. I guess it likes it here. I do, too.

Gone knitting.

Three Years

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

This little guy has been gone three years today and my heart misses him so much. Boq was a special boy. He loved to hide under the chair in my Florida living room. He was a great paper shredder as long as he wasn’t under any time constraints. It took him forever because he was very thorough. He loved to explore when he was a younger pup.He loved to go on family walks in Maine and would walk all the way to the mailboxes while his sister chose to get a ride.

He once “got lost” in the yard and came limping up to the back door which is really the front door at the back of the house. Back then it was the old house. He must have gone under the house and made friends or enemies with a baby porcupine because he had a tiny porcupine quill in his foot. Or it could have been a tiny thorn. You have to admit the baby porcupine story is a good one.

Boogie Man was always willing to pose for a photograph. He was the photogenic one. His sister hated it. He also loved to sit on laps and cuddle. He loved blankets and he loved his beds. His bed in my studio was his favorite place to stretch out on his back with a blanket and a favorite toy and snooze in the sun. He was never potty trained. I was. I could read him pretty well and when I missed his cues, it was my fault and he was small. To this day, if an ice cube melts on the kitchen floor, I think of him.

He loved his sweaters and outfits and he wore them all well and with good humor. He was the best nursing home visitor and would sit with any of the residents. He even brought one woman out of her silence (and made her daughters cry). He was always up for a car ride and he sometimes was found riding while facing the back seat while the other dogs were facing forward. Did I tell you he was a special boy?

Boq developed a seizure disorder late in his life. It was horrible to witness his seizures. Medicine kept it pretty well at bay until it didn’t. He had a massive seizure one day when we were both at work and my dear hubby came home to a dog who was very sick. He rushed him to the vet and they stabilized him but we had a big decision to make because it was going to happen again and it would be an emergency. We didn’t want him to suffer. He was suffering, he wasn’t eating and was “hiding” himself in our closet most of the days.

I miss him so much even after three years. I loved watching his hair bounce when he ran in to the kitchen for dinner or breakfast. He would patiently wait for his sister to finish her food so he could lick her bowl. He was very good at cleaning up the kitchen floor. He was a joy to share life with for 14+ years. The only thing he ever did “wrong” was that he didn’t live forever.

We miss you Mr. Boogie. You were the best boy.

Blocking Nancy’s Vest on a Beautiful Sunday

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

As the sun sets on this weekend, we’re enjoying some quiet time at home. We went into town to pick up groceries that we’ve not had time to do since we’ve been traveling and living around a couple of crazy winter storms. But today we got it done and we can eat for a week or two before we have to grocery shop again. I pulled some bananas out of the freezer as I was organizing and will make some banana nut muffins in the morning and maybe some granola, too. You know it’s been a crazy time when we run out of granola!

My Nancy’s Vest is blocked. I’m really excited to be able to wear this vest this week when I go to work. It’s been an interesting challenge because it looks so simple but it has a few techniques that were new and several directions at once so I needed to pay close attention. Despite being warned, I didn’t read ahead in the pattern and neglected to stop and divide for the front and back pieces (and I had to frog back 3 inches of stockinette) and there were a couple of places where I didn’t decrease on the front parts. Fortunately I was paying closer attention and didn’t have to frog back quite so far.

Regardless, I really enjoyed the process and I loved learning a couple of new tricks. The button bands were knit as you go as part of the garment and that was fun. I am eager to see how the button holes work. I used the ones in the pattern but I wasn’t sure about them. I also liked the cabled decreases, they make for nearly invisible shaping on the body of the vest.

When I got to seaming the shoulders, I had the back bound off and live stitches on the front left and right. The directions said to graft them together. This made my head spin and there was no tutorial for doing this. I’ve grafted plenty of stitches together when there are live stitches on both sides but this isn’t the case here. And THEN she offered an option of a 3 needle bind off. Again, I’ve done a lot of these but they entail having live stitches on the two sides being knitted together and bound off. So, I thought about it for a few minutes and decided to unpick the bound off back stitches and return them to the needles and then I did a three needle bind off at the first shoulder, bound off the stitches across the back of the neck and did a three-needle bind off at the second shoulder. It seems to have worked and it will add some structure to the shoulder.

The blocking happens now, before the finishing of the back of the collar. I will have to add a little bit of length to the collar pieces before grafting them together and attaching them to the back of the neck. That’s the only seaming in the whole garment! I’ll weave in the ends and then crochet around a couple of spots and it’ll be finished and ready to wear.

On Friday I hope my friend/co-worker and I will both be wearing our Nancy’s Vests at work. We had our own little KAL that we didn’t plan but kind of just happened. It’s funny that we are both finishing at about the same time considering.

I’m going to give myself a bit of a break from finishing until my vest dries and tonight I’m going to knit up a pair of fingerless mitts with a hank of deeply stashed Malabrigo Rios. I don’t know what the colorway is because the label appears to have left the building, but it’s a pretty blue colorway. These will knit up quickly and will be satisfying after the longer projects. After that, I’ll be frogging back one sleeve on my Norwegian sweater that is SO close to being done. I’m going to attempt to decrease more rapidly and then knit the colorwork and cuff (and then try to copy what I did on the first sleeve with the second one. That’s all I have left to do and that sweater will also be finished. I sure do hope after all this that I will be able to wear the sweater. My allergies seem to be getting worse with some wool. I hope the natural wools will be exempt from allergies. I can wear Patagonia Organic Merino and I hope this Norwegian wool will be free of whatever makes me sneeze!

Gone knitting.

Final pictures will be posted on my Instagram feed @queenbeeknits and lindar on my Ravelry project page.

Nancy’s Vest – An Easy Challenge

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

The lake was covered with untouched snow this morning but there was no visible sunrise. Clouds were thick, there was only a glimpse of pink at the north end of the lake. (It did get better later in the day when the sun was shining briliantly.

I’ve wanted to write about my Nancy’s Vest. My co-worker friend, Glenda, and I are both knitting it so I’ve had a bit of “heads up” which has been helpful. BUT even with her help, I’ve had to stop and frog back three inches of stockinette stitches because I forgot that I was warned to read ahead. Ha! Ha! That’ll show me. Once again, my knitting is keeping me humble and even simple knitting projects can be a challenge.

Nancy’s Vest is by Carol Sunday. It’s knit in one piece from the bottom up and the only finishing is at the shoulders. I chose Manos del Uruguay’s Milo yarn, a sport weight blend of merino and linen (380 yards to 100 grams). I am enjoying the yarn. It’s not at all splitty and it’s very soft. Every once in a while it does get sticky but that’s likely the linen strands and a little bit of vegetable matter. I bought the Manchester colorway, a brownish gray or a grayish brown color. A dark neutral and one that I think I will wear a lot. The vest is a little bit cropped and I’ll likely wear it over my white blouses with slacks (to work) and maybe over a dress.

My first “mistake” was due to not reading ahead. I’d made a lot of progress a couple of Fridays ago at my knitting class. Almost all of it had to be frogged because I forgot to split the vest into two front sides and a back after 12 1/2 inches. Oops.

Today I finished the left front side.

The construction is fun and keeps it interesting with some different techniques. The edging is knitted at the same time as knitting the vest. There are eight stitches for the button placket and button hole placket and they’re knitted at the same time as the vest. The button holes are a different technique that i’ve not done before. Basically, a one-row button hole, slipping stitches and binding them off and then turning your work to (cable) cast on new stitches and close the button hole. Once at the armpits, decreases on either side of the front are made and you really have to be careful here to read ahead. I nearly made a second big mistake, but caught it in time to call it a minor mistake and I only had to frog a few rows. I’ve used my knitCompanion app to keep track of all the different decreases and row counts but I could also see the wisdom of creating a chart of “changes” to be made on each row. I marked each of the decreases on the neck side with a marker so that I could easily count them. It’s worked well (and my stitch count has been spot on!

You are asked to run a “life line” to mark the garment when you reach the armpits. I use dental floss … not peppermint … because it’s slippery and thin and almost always stands apart from the yarn. It makes it really easy to measure the length of the front piece. Great bit of instruction.

I’m now working on the right front side and the second one is going more quickly than the first. I kept track of exactly where I left off when I separated the three sections in the notes section of knitCompanion so that I knew when I attached the yarn to work on the right side I would know it was one WS row before I needed to decrease on the neck edge. Once again, I forgot that I had immediate decreases on the arm hole side, too, and had to frog back one row plus enough stitches to decrease there. That was a simple “fix” thank goodness.

The cable decrease (left and right) are a fun and new-to-me decrease. It’s very attractive on the garment, too. I like it. I’m at the point on the right front where I have arm hole side decreases every four rows and neck side decreases every six rows so I’m being careful to count my rows and mark them. So far so good. I’d love to finish the right side today or tomorrow so I can get to work on the back after work on Thursday.

I’ll report more as I make more progress but for now …

Gone knitting.

First and Second FO – 2024

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

We have an ice-covered lake now and this morning it was talking when I went out to take my daily photograph. It was cold this morning and we have a Nor’easter coming our way. I’m wearing my snowflake earrings in hopes that we have LOTS of snow!

I’ve finished my first and second project of 2024.

I participated in the Snow Matter What gnome KAL by Sarah Schira. She does a wonderful job and it’s not too much knitting on any particular day. Balanced with a fun story about the gnomes and a recipe or two, the gnome KAL is always a favorite end of the year. (It’s meant as a December palate cleanser, and this was to have been finished by Christmas Eve. Obviously, I’m a bit later than that … and it’s all good. I cleansed my palate after Christmas.)

This year there were two characters to create. The appetizer was the Sgnome-man which is a fun surprise departure from the normal characters. Beginning with several mystery pieces and then the body of the main character (or so I thought).

And once the sgnome-man was finished it was on to the main course. I applaud Sarah Schira for her creativity once again. I knew the white bit in the first picture was going to be a nose … and I was pretty sure I made a mistake when it was left on my desk after the sgnome-man was finished. Ha! Ha!

The embroidery on the two pieces helps them to know that they go together! I weighted one with rice and one with lavender and they’ll join their gnome friends. I’m collecting quite a fun little collection of gnomes – they make me smile.

I also finished my Sophie Scarf which I made from deeply stashed Lana Gatto Cashmere Light yarn. I quite literally have no idea where I got this yarn. I had three balls of gray (one light and two dark) and had them with my sport/dk weight yarns in my stash … it looks like they’re actually worsted weight. I used the majority of one of the darker balls to make the larger version of the scarf. It feels SO luxurious! It’s currently being soaked for blocking and I hope I like wearing it. It’ll be so nice against the skin and the color is very neutral – a really warm neck hugger.

I’m carrying ten more WIPs into 2024 with me. I am really going to make an attempt to finish them up before I start anything else. Next on my list of things to finish is my Nancy’s vest and the blue striped socks. I will also put back into rotation the pink embroidered mittens. I’d love to have them to wear (and if I like the Sophie’s Scarf, I may have to make another in pink to match the mittens. This time with fingering weight yarn, I think.)

We’ve been out for a late breakfast today and my dear hubby and the dog took the garbage to the dump and got a new bag of dog food so we are content to be home the rest of the day. I think I need to go find a cardigan to put on … it’s chilly in my studio now that the sun has gone behind the clouds.

Gone knitting.

After Christmas Report

Posted on December 27, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

We are back home after a wonderful whirlwind Christmas trip to New York City. Rather than spending the holiday staring at each other, we decided to head to the city to spend the holiday with our NY family and, maybe most importantly, our granddaughter.

We ate and drank and played games and watched movies, we spent lots of time together enjoying each other’s company. Christmas Eve we ate beef stew and shrimp scampi at B&K’s apartment and Christmas morning was also at their place where we had cinnamon rolls, muffins, mimosas and eggs and bacon. Christmas dinner was at K&S’s apartment and we had lasagna two ways, garlic bread and kale salad. I so love spending time with my family. We fit in time for baking Spritz cookies which is a family tradition and the kids even snuck a few into our bag when we were heading home. A nice surprise!

I designed my first “real” sweater for my granddaughter’s second Christmas and I wanted to show it to you. I have to look into how to grade and tech edit (and test knit) the pattern and decide if it’s worth it to publish the pattern. It’s a chimney sweater and popping out of the chimney is the jolly old elf. I had to re-knit the yoke to make it deep enough to fit a pair of little arms but I am pleased with the way it fit our little elf.

The sweater is knit in a DK weight yarn and fits my darling elf perfectly. The hat is a special addition because I wanted it to look like Santa’s head is popping out of the chimney. I added the little green garland to give it a pop of color. It’s sewn on with cotton thread. The little hat also fit perfectly and my daughter loved it. I’m guessing an elf hat will be requested another time.

I also knitted two berets for my future daughter-in-love. She requested spring weight hats for her golfing when the days are a bit chilly. I pulled tan yarn from around the store one day and she chose two favorites. A Malabrigo Arroyo in colorway 131 Sandbank. I wouldn’t have looked at this color twice (or once) but I really love the color and the hat is stunning. I loved the icord edging and will be looking forward to the report from the wearer. I was so excited to finish the hat before leaving the city that I forgot to photograph it. I have one in-process photo.

The pattern, Bisbis by Sari Nordlund, is simple enough for an adventurous beginner, starting with an i-cord and increasing rapidly. It’s a bit fiddly to do because you have only a few stitches on DPNs but it was easily completed in about 7 hours total knitting. I started it on Friday in my knitting class holding a strand of mohair with the sport weight superwash but I didn’t like the fuzziness. So, on Saturday on the ride into NYC, I frogged it and started again with just the Arroyo. I loved it.

The other hat is One Day Beret by Kristin Kapur. This one was knit in Cascade’s Aegean Tweed which is an organic merino wool and I used two colors and knitted two-round stripes. I carried the yarn on the inside of the hat so I didn’t have lots of ends to weave in. I also loved the way this hat knit up and the yarn is wonderful to work with. In fact, it was very similar to my favorite yarn, Patagonia by Juniper Moon Farms. Both are organic merino and they’re similar weights. This hat is a bit larger than Bisbis and ends in ribbing. It’ll be interesting to see which hat fits better, which is the better size, etc.

I’ve got to get better about photographing the hats at the end … I get excited and forget. Haha! Oh well. You can get the gist of what it looks like by this photo. I added a bit of an i-cord “string” or whatever that part of the tam/beret is called that sits at the top and then began the pattern. I am really pleased with both hats.

I have a long list of projects to start in the New Year. Mostly gifts but a few for myself. Sock for my daughter, Love and Light for my nephew’s bride-to-be for their shower, another for my bonus daughter’s engagement gift I want to finish my gnome KAL and knit the Arne & Carlos Advent Christmas Stocking for myself. My stocking isn’t my favorite anymore … and needs to be changed out. I’ll keep the old one just in case we get lucky and have all the kids for Christmas at our house one year.

I’ve been working on a pair of socks for my bonus son-in-law for a future gift and my Nancy’s vest. I’ve nearly reached the end of the button hold section and will be happy to wear it in the New Year. I have to find 7 perfect buttons for it, too. I have two sleeves to finish my Norwegian knitting project … actually, it’s one sleeve and a little bit of a second. I’ve had a challenge in how to knit a chart with the wrong number of stitches while decreasing to the right number of stitches. But I’ll figure it out. I hope. I’m so close to being able to wear it!

We will be spending New Year’s Eve with my brothers and their brides and we’re excited to see them. I hope your Christmas was merry and your New Year is healthy and happy!

Gone fishing.