Queen Bee Knits

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

Grand-Parenting in the Big City

Posted on October 31, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

We have been in New York babysitting for our granddaughter while her parents take a little anniversary holiday in Costa Rica. It was all planned out so that we would have a bit of a break when Sylvie went to school on weekday mornings … but you know about the saying, “when you plan, God laughs”, right?

On Monday morning we were so proud of ourselves, we got the little miss up and dressed, fed and out the door … delivered to school at 8:00am. We got to the grocery store and back home and I pulled out my knitting after I cleaned up the kitchen, vacuumed up the dog hair and put a load of wash in … and the phone rang. School was asking for us to pick her up; she had bumps on her hand and face and they suspected HFMD. So we packed up the stroller for the second trip to school to pick her up and on the way called the pediatrician to make an appointment for a sick child visit … and she was sick! Hand, foot and mouth it is and she’s out of school for at least this week. So, no more breaks for Yaya and Poppi, but I’m proud to say that we’ve fared very well partly because we go to bed early and partly because she takes a good nap in the afternoon. BUT we are re-learning what a challenge a 2-year old can be! Ha! Ha! Yaya has a lot more patience for toddler antics than Poppi does but we are tag-teaming it and we are winning!

With HFMD she’s not allowed in proximity to other children or people so we are trying to keep her busy without the playground and we’ve been pretty successful. Yesterday we went out to the courtyard in her building to carve our little pumpkin and the day before we made cookies. Today we went back into the courtyard with sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

We had a pizza party with her aunts and uncle on Sunday and she’s eaten left-over pizza a couple of times. Yesterday may have been a three-cookie day … she ate mine! And playing in the leaves is still fun when you’re two! She loves coloring inside and out, and she can put her own shoes on! She’s brilliant. We’ve been singing SO many songs and she loves Miss Rachel – when Yaya and Poppi need a breather we will turn her on for a few minutes.

AND while all of this is going on, they’re fixing the facade of the building right outside of the apartment … jackhammers on the walls, brick bits falling onto the windows. As if New York wasn’t loud enough for these Mainers! What an experience! Thank goodness they’re gone by four o’clock or so in the evening. But the New York City kiddo is SLEEPING through it all! What a trooper.

I fixed the neck of an anchor sweater that I made as a sample for a workshop that I taught that just happens to be the right size for Sylvie right now. It didn’t go over her head the way I’d made it so I pulled the neck ribbing out and re-knit it and used a stretchy bind off and now she can wear it.

I have finished the front and back of my pink Lane’s Island sweater and I’ve started the sleeves. I’m knitting both sleeves at the same time and had mostly completed the four inches of ribbing for the sleeves and I’ve managed to knit eight rows of stockinette stitch. Not much knitting going on here! But I’ll have plenty of knitting time “soon soon” when her parents get home. I’m going to hate to leave.

Making memories. Call me Yaya! Gone knitting.

The Blizzard of 2022

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Queen Bee Knits

The morning after is here. We made it through this giant monster storm with wind and sideways snow without so much as a flicker of the lights. It started out innocent enough yesterday morning around 7:00am with lovely little flakes and it progressively got heavier and then windier. As long as it was light, we couldn’t see across the lake. At times, we couldn’t see the ice fishing shack that’s about half way across. But we were warm and cozy inside our house.

This morning the sun is up and it’s a bluebird day. We spent the early pre-dawn hours with coffee working ourselves up to the digging out (which mostly falls on my sweet husband and the snowblower) but I helped! I’ve cleaned off my car, the front dooryard and half of the porch. I also brought in the porch cushions which we “forgot about” in the fall. Since it’s Sunday, he had an extra dose of motivation … the Sunday NY Times! He’s headed out to see if it’s been delivered since we can’t get it delivered to the house here in the country.

We had a good day for making things at home since we couldn’t go anywhere. I started with blueberry muffins before 8 yesterday. They were delicious. They always are. From there, we went to our own “corners” but met in the middle several times. When N. made breakfast, reheated leftovers for lunch, to watch the news and for dinner (he made Musaka!) … all in all, it was a really sweet day.

I finished and blocked the two tams that I’ve been asked to make for a customer. I’ll trim the ends and wrap and deliver them on Monday. I spent some time working on the newsletter that I write for the store, and I updated the email list. It takes at least three hours a week to get this done and I love hearing from customers who like it – and some who don’t, who challenge me to write better or differently. I also know that you can’t please everyone and I’m pleased with and proud of what I write every week.

I also knitted the Love and Light heart. This is a fun, quick knit and I was surprised and a little bit pleased when I plugged the fairy lights in to find that they were multi-colored! (I bought these on Amazon.) I thought I ordered white lights just like I bought for my Starry Light. Yeah, nope. Surprise! But it’s all good. I like the way it turned out and we all need a little more love and light these days, right? This is the third project that I’ve knitted in fairy lights. The first was Leila Raven’s Knitted Fairy Lights idea about a year ago. I merely bought the lights and “swatched.”

The Love & Light pattern was a little bit confusing in its construction. You knit one “lobe” and then the second and connect them as you knit down. You’re supposed to leave some slack (inches of it) between the lobes and I’m still not sure why. Regardless, it’s so much fun. Knitting with wire “yarn” is unforgiving and it’s really difficult to go back and re-knit. Fairy lights are not really strong, either, so you need to remember to knit gently and not pull too tightly. Both of these patterns, though, are quick and I really enjoyed them and I love lighting up the house with them.

I binge watched the entire second season of Emily in Paris yesterday evening. It’s just what the doctor ordered for a blizzard and no politics or violence. At the end of the day I picked up the Anchor Sweater and got the shoulders seamed and the collar knitted. Today the plan is to pick up the shoulder stitches and work down at least one sleeve. I’m getting closer to another FO.

You can find all of my projects on my Ravelry project page.

Gone knitting.

Mini Jumpers Advent Calendar, WIPs and a FO

Posted on January 26, 2022 by Queen Bee Knits

I’m making progress day by day and I’m well on my way to completing the 24 Arne & Carlos Advent Calendar mini-jumpers. I’ve finished through #8 and have begun #9. They’re quite fun and they don’t take a lot of time at all once you get the hang of it.

Because they’re going to hold tiny trinkets (gifts) for Advent, I decided to catch the floats in the body of the jumper but I’m not worrying at all about the sleeves. Nobody’s fingers will be getting caught in the floats so I’m just knitting them with abandon. I decided at the outset to make all of the sweaters in a “traditional” Christmas palate of red, green and white and I’m sticking to that. To be honest, though, I’ve doubted myself here on more than one occasion as I try to figure out how to keep the colors random but no two the same right next to each other.

I’m slowly making my way to finishing a few WIPs or UFOs … I use the two terms interchangeably, don’t you? I’ve finished a camouflage sweater for my son’s pup, my youngest grand-dog, Gus. I was asked to knit it in camo yarn in honor of my little shihtzu, Boq who died last January. A very sweet request. Gus should have it (hopefully it will fit!) in New York City by Boq’s birthday. I can’t believe how much I still miss those little dogs. Boq loved his “macho” camo sweater and was such a handsome model (see below.) Photos of Gus in his sweater coming soon.

Wicked Munchkin Boq 1/31/2005 – 1/15/2021

I’ve had a new order from a former customer who I’m always delighted to hear from. Every winter I’ve been knitting her a few caps in bulky weight yarns. This year she’s requesting black hats and navy hats. I have one black hat knitted and the second hank of yarn is caked up and ready to knit. If I’d stop writing, I could knit it and have them both blocked and ready for delivery next week.

I’m nearly finished with the front of the Anchor Sweater. I put it aside to knit Gus’s sweater and the caps for Judy. I hope I’ll get it finished so that I can knit the sleeves and wrap this project up by the middle of next month. The sleeves have some stripes on them but they’re pretty simple and shouldn’t take a long time to knit. Intarsia is still one of my least favorite knitting techniques but the sweater is pretty cute. Some lucky kiddo will get to wear this sweater eventually!

Gone knitting!

From the “Expert”

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Queen Bee Knits

Because I value honesty, I want to tell you a very typical story from knitters. Beginner knitters all the way through to expert knitters. All of us have had this experience that I had today. Fortunately, I can laugh at myself. I made a rookie mistake today.

I pulled one of my UFOs out of the cupboard this week in an effort to get some old projects finished. This one is the Anchor Sweater, an intarsia sweater in a child size, by Roo Designs. I started this sweater last year when I was teaching an intarsia workshop. And once the class was over, I put the sweater away and “forgot about it” until I started a cleaning up program in the New Year.

Today I started working on the back of the sweater. My pattern says that the back needs to be knitted until it’s 16 inches long. I got knitting this morning in my class and then at lunchtime I found the back that I had knitted last year …. I should have been knitting the front! Oh, crap!

So, tonight, when I got home, I frogged back to where I started this morning and began following the chart for the anchor. And I was laughing at myself and my rookie mistake.

All of this is to say that I am not perfect. Many people might consider me an expert (I don’t think I’ll ever get there, it makes me laugh because I still learn new things about knitting all the time!) I make mistakes. Lots of them. On a regular basis. This time, here’s what I did wrong … (the idea here is for me to teach you something, right?) I put a project away without making a note on the pattern noting exactly where I stopped work. I “should” have at the very least marked my pattern with a big arrow showing where I begin knitting. If I had marked my pattern (with a big arrow?) I would have known that I’d finished the back and was working on the front.

Oh well. Gone knitting.