Queen Bee Knits

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

Ahhhh! Hello, Sunday!

Posted on April 26, 2026 by Queen Bee Knits

What a beautiful sunny morning we are having! It’s been quite a long work week and I appreciate the sunshine and empty schedule today. My hubby asked what I wanted to do over our coffee this morning and my response was, “nothing”. I have been on the go all week and I just want to hang at home and get myself caught up. Thought I’d come here this morning to tell you what I’ve been up to as most of it is yarn related.

Monday I had a beautiful day at home and baked for the first time in awhile. We were out of my homemade granola (hubby often takes it to work with some yogurt for his second breakfast) and I had some bran flakes cereal in the pantry that I wanted to use up so I baked some bran muffins with blueberries. They’re yummy. Hubby’s been a happy man this week. I was at work on Tuesday and on Wednesday I did the house work – changed our bed, did the laundry, ordered and picked up groceries, cleaned the kitchen and made soup for dinner. One of my knitting buddies came over to knit but we ended up sitting and yakking until she had to run to her exercise class and I had to run to pick up the groceries. It was a good day, though.

I have spent the last three days at the store working and teaching and by yesterday afternoon, Carol and I were “done” (cooked, pooped, drained … the list goes on!) Yesterday was Local Yarn Shop day, our Saturday knitting group was in the shop, and I was teaching a Brioche Workshop in the morning so it was a busy day at the store. I had a great group of 13 women who learned a new technique – Brioche knitting. I wish I’d had another hour for them but it went well and most of the class really honed in on their new skill.

After the workshop I had a brief but sweet lunch with one of my students who I know from high school. We reconnected last year when she came to my workshop. What a surprise! It was really fun to chat in person and get (sort of) caught up on the years between high school and yesterday. We will need to meet up more than once a year to really catch up and we have so many things in common! And then it was back to work for the rest of the day. So, you can understand that today is a day for “nothing” for me … I maybe should say that I will do only what I want to do, on my own schedule. And today will include knitting … I have already had some coffee on the porch with yarn in my hands but the wind kicked up and sent me inside.

I’ve been working on several projects and making a little bit of progress on each of them. This morning I was working on my “poor” Escher socks that have been ignored for a bit. I’m trying nine-inch circular needles for the first (second?) time and I think I finally have the hang of it. What I do like is that I don’t have to be concerned about changing from needle to needle on DPNs which really helps me with the tension, especially at the small circumference. It’ll be very interesting to compare the first sock knit on DPNs to the second sock knit with the nine-inch circ. I am using my ChiaoGoo Shorties set for one of the first times. So far, so good. The Escher socks need to get finished so I can knit another pair of socks with my new Biscotte yarn! 🙂

I have finished one purple crown and begun a second for my granddaughter and her friend. That is quite another funny story and maybe I’ll write about it another day. The pattern is free on Ravelry, Elegant Crown, and I’m knitting in Plymouth Encore worsted. It takes little or no time to knit these up and I think the girls are going to love them.

Next up is the new sample I’m knitting for the store. It’s called the Pressed Flowers Kerchief and is another free Ravelry pattern. We had several shawl kits that were not selling, even on sale, and we thought we could separate the yarn and find another something to knit with it. The yarn is a cashmere blend and we found this cute little kerchief and I’m knitting a sample in hopes that the yarn will sell in its new iteration for Mother’s Day, maybe. The pattern is very potato chippy and the yarn is delicious so it’s an easy one to choose when I sit to knit. The kerchief is small enough, too, not to feel like a burden to knit when I have a lot of projects on the needles. I’ve rounded the corner (so to speak) and am working my way through the second half of the project. I’ll block it and have it in the store next week. Fingers crossed.

Still on the needles and getting marginally closer to the finish line is the Vanilla Sweater that I’m making for my college roommate. I’ve finished one sleeve and have started to finish the body of the sweater now that we’ve settled on the length that she wants. I’ve just split the hem and if I really concentrate, I should be able to get this sweater finished soon. As an aside, My Vanilla sweater tends to roll up on the front and I don’t want that to happen to hers so I’ll do an extra round or two on the hem before binding off. I’m so close!

This coming week will be a little less work and a little more volunteering. We have a big 10th Anniversary celebration at Maine Arts Academy on Saturday so we have several committee meetings set up and I have a meeting with the CEO, in addition to being at the event on Saturday morning. Add my normal work days in at the store and it will be another full week. I’ll write about the event next week but after it’s over, it’ll be “smooth sailing” into the summer.

We are busy cleaning up our gardens, the perennials are starting to peek their heads out of the ground and the bulbs are coming up. At least the daffodils are crocus are … I’m still waiting for the tulips. Last summer the kids all helped to repaint our guest cottage (it’s gorgeous to look at now) and we will be planting up in front of it this year. It still needs some interior work and then a good cleaning and we will be able to use it and/or rent it this summer. Hopefully it’ll rent by word of mouth and we’ll see how we like having people here. It’s a sweet space (if it was insulated and heated, I’d make it my studio!) that we lived in for seven months with our (then) three dogs while we built the house. I loved living there!

Gone knitting!

“I believe in hope. I believe in ‘Believe’.”

Posted on March 31, 2026 by Queen Bee Knits

I don’t know about you but I love the show Ted Lasso. I am not a sports buff nor a sports fan, if I’m honest, but I loved the show and it must be because it’s the coach who’s a coach against all odds. And Coach Lasso says the damndest things! (The title quote is one of his and a favorite!)

Yesterday was a busy day at our house. I spent several hours at my desk writing most of a newsletter for the yarn shop where I work and making calls and catching up on emails for the board that I sit on. I also made a couple of calls to find out why nobody had returned my calls last week or several months ago. Does it bother you that the service industry, at least in part, seems to have lost its ability to return calls? This is what we used to call “customer service” and I’ve noticed that lots of organizations simply don’t know how to provide it.

My first call was to my doctor’s office. I had left a message last week Tuesday to get a prescription changed so I don’t have to refill it every 30 days. AND I wanted to know what the office protocol is when test results come back into the office – do they call patients with results or should patients be on their online records portal? When I called, the person answering the phone looked and said that I’d left a message about tests results. Well, sort of and no. I told her that I wanted to know what their protocol was and that I’d had three tests over the course of the last six months or so (don’t worry, I’m fine, they’re just normal stuff – allergy test, mammogram and follow-up blood) and was not called. She said a letter was sent out and read it to me. I suspect the letter was sent out AFTER I called last week but time will tell. After speaking to the office manager, too, I feel like nothing will change and the “healthcare home” that I am looking for is not there. My assigned practitioner doesn’t seem able or willing to make those calls and I will have to follow myself on the portal. Others love the portals but I like a good old fashioned phone call. It’s a way to build a relationship with the person who is watching over my health and as I age it becomes more and more important.

Next I called an insurance broker who I had reached out to before year-end and we were slow getting her photos of our property but my hubby sent photos in December. Since then, crickets. So, yesterday I reached out to her, too. Wouldn’t you think she’d want some new business? Doesn’t that mean some additional money for her? Good grief! Why do I have to do the work?

(update: I have spoken to the insurance broker and it seems that our town records are incorrect online. I’ve spoken to someone in the Assessor’s office who has changed the record to indicate that the house was rebuilt in 2015 rather than renovated and emailed me a copy of the record for the insurance company. BUT there is still about a half-dozen mistakes on the card: siding materials, insulation, it says we have a fireplace (we don’t) and it says it’s a seasonal residence (it’s not). The Assessor is only in his Belgrade office one day a month … what are the chances that this is addressed in a timely manner? Can you see me cracking my skull against my desk?)

AND when I get frustrated and the point of this diatribe is that I baked my frustration away. I had been cleaning out some of my old photos that don’t need to be kept on my phone and came across a screenshot of a recipe for “Ted Lasso Shortbread”. If you watch the show, you’ll know that Ted brings the boss lady shortbread in the morning in a little pink box. My hubby loves shortbread and I have never made it for him but I always buy some for his Christmas stocking. I decided yesterday that it was the day to give it a shot. Simple as pie instructions (maybe simpler than pie, actually) and only five ingredients. I tossed it all into the food processor and when it was mixed up, I pressed it into an 8×8 baking pan with parchment paper beneath. Baked it for a bit and …. OMG! This stuff is so yummy that I like it, too!

I thought I’d share the recipe and tell you what I did a little bit differently. I did not cut them before I baked them – they crumbled apart and it was a mess. I baked them for 35 minutes and then cut them when they were just out of the oven. I then returned them to the oven to finish baking. I used Turbinado sugar sprinkled on top. Next time, I may use my edible flowers with a bit less sugar sprinkled on top. We both taste-tested them and they were good when they were warm but they were even better this morning with my coffee.

Ted Lasso Shortbread by Chouquette Kitchen

I took a quick walk around the yard looking for signs of spring yesterday when the temps were more favorable for such a thing. I did find a few signs. Some of my tulip bulbs have survived another winter and there are daffodils coming up, too. Yay! The wind off the lake is still really cold, though, and we may be getting a bit of snow later this week. Stay strong little flowers-to-be!

I stayed up way too late last night to finish my socks. AND, I got them done. Phew. I like them well enough but I probably won’t choose to knit with this particular yarn again. I don’t love the base (and it’s already pilling a little bit.) But they’re done. I also took a bunch of time to work on the Vanilla Sweater and have gotten the sleeves divided and am heading down the body of the pullover now. And with that progress, I need to cast on another pair of socks and another sweater project: my daughter’s wrap cardigan.

I’ve also signed up for a shawl KAL with the Wooly Thistle yarn shop which is in New Hampshire. (And will be a weekend road trip soon!) I haven’t decided which shawl I’m going to knit but I’m thinking I’d like to knit Gudrun Johnson’s Hansel Hap (Half Hap). I have a sweater’s worth of Jamieson’s jumper weight in a neutral beige-y color and tons of little balls of Jamieson’s or J&S which are interchangeable and that may work. I’m already behind on this project, of course, but I really am trying to make myself finish up some older WIPs before starting new ones. I also think I know which socks I’m going to knit next. I have a student who’s knitted the Escher Socks with a ball of cream solid fingering and a ball of Crazy Zauberball. I happen to have both in my stash! She also knit the Sunny Side UP socks and I have plenty of stashed yarn for those, too. So, with that in mind, away I go!

Gone knitting.

Snowmageddon

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Queen Bee Knits

I started this post yesterday, Sunday when the big one was coming! LOL. It has now been here for less than 24 hours and we’ve had about a foot of snow. It’s beautiful light and fluffy snow. As I type this morning, the flakes are getting bigger and, according to my weather app, it’s going to stop early this afternoon. Hopefully we (the royal we) can get some clean up done before it begins again this evening. We’re only supposed to get a couple more inches overnight and Tuesday is supposed to be cold but sunny.

We ran a couple of errands Saturday after we sat through a 4 hour town meeting. Things are still done here the old fashioned way, in person at a town meeting. Full-time residents are invited to participate in the democratic process and vote to approve (or not) the town budget. It was a fairly grueling meeting as our taxes have gone way up over a relatively short amount of time and it seems they’re going to go up more. It feels like the majority of town residents don’t want the services to be cut (we have a library, a town history building, a rec center and a volunteer fire department with very old, outdated facilities) and yet, don’t want to pay more taxes. I’d like to see the town cut expenses somewhere but I can’t really criticize because I’m not involved enough to really know how they operate. I may become more involved.

Anyway, we treated ourselves to lunch at the Red Barn (filled our bellies with fried seafood) after the meeting. It was yummy.

Sunday we ran out ahead of the storm so I could get yarn. I have learned about the “Melt Ice” hat that came from Norway in the 1940s as a silent protest against the Nazi’s occupation of their country. There were enough of them then to be banned by the Nazis in a couple of years! Anyway, the pattern for the hat was rewritten for knitters today and is the top selling pattern right now on Ravelry. We’ve had a lot of customers in the store late in the week buying red yarn and I decided this morning that I have to make a couple of red hats. So my husband and I got into the car to make a run into town to procure some red yarn. I chose a DK Patagonia Organic Merino and a light worsted Malabrigo Rios.

We zipped back home with a stop for a green pepper for our chili for dinner. My plan was to start knitting right away but I ended up in the kitchen baking what I am now dubbing “Snowmageddon Cookies” (aka peanut butter blossoms). They’ll be yummy to nibble on while we watch the snow fall for the next 24 hours. We are supposed to get up to 16 inches of snow over the next 24 hours. The biggest storm we’ve had in years. And it’s also going to be cold all week.

I have fully recovered from my bout with the flu and I am so grateful for modern science and vaccines. It wasn’t fun but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been either. I had a lot of time to knit over the three weeks that I wasn’t feeling well.

I have finished my Gansey Afghan. Yay! And I am so happy with the finished blanket. I am seriously thinking of making another one for us to have (me to have) in my studio. Maybe in orange!

I’ve been working on my husband’s Christmas socks and am making good progress there. I really like this pattern, too, but they’re worked on a smaller needle with pretty heavy-weight yarn so they’re hard on my hands and I can only work on them for a limited time. But I’ve only got one more repeat of the cable pattern before I can speed up to the cuff. There’s a little bit of color work and then I’ll be done! I still love the Raggi yarn so much and wish we could still stock it at our LYS! It makes the warmest boot socks!

I haven’t worked on my Ranunculus at all. I decided to cast on my good trouble “Le Bandana” shawl. I cast on with my sport weight yarn on a US 4 and I’m not thrilled about the fabric. It seems stiff and I’m concerned about the drape or lack thereof. I have more yarn than the pattern calls for so I wonder if I go up a needle size if I’d like the fabric better. I think I am leaning toward giving a larger needle a try. This is Lola Bean Yarn Company’s Soy Bean base in the Good Trouble colorway that I pre-ordered. I love the colors and it will match the red hat!

Le Bandana in LolaBean Yarn Company “good trouble” colorway

I’ve also been working on a new pair of socks. The yarn is so deeply stashed that I’m not sure how long ago I ordered it. Dare I say we were still living in Florida? It’s very possible. I bought the yarn from an indie dyer, The Yarn Enabler, after I bought her Number 2 Pencil sock yarn. This one is her Paper colorway … dyed to remind us of the notebook paper we used in school. I’ve got the first leg knitted and need to choose what heel I’m going to knit. I’m basing the sock on the Yankee Knitter pattern. I use a 1.5US dpn and cast on 64 sts. I’m knitting the leg in stockinette stitch to show off the yarn. Aren’t they fun?

I have also cast on my Melt Ice hat in Malabrigo Rios. The pattern is written for fingering, DK/sport and worsted. I chose Rios because it’s a light worsted, maybe even closer to a sport, and it’s soft. I chose the Ravelry Red colorway. I love the color across all of the Malabrigo bases. I expect it will bleed a bit when I block it. I’ll have vinegar at the ready!

There is six inches of 1×1 rib to begin the hat … I’ll be ribbing for a while!

I have pulled a couple of my hubby’s hand knit wool sweaters to snow wash them. They need it. I’ve never tried to snow wash sweaters but “they” say it works and I have before photos to see if I can prove or disprove the theory. I sure hope it works! I’d be really bummed if I spent time out in the cold and the sweaters were still dirty! I’ll let you know if it happens.

I’ve found a cute crochet pattern for a car key fob holder(?) that I thought was really silly. I pulled some cotton out of my bins of left-over yarn and have very slowly begun to give it a try. I will show you my progress as I make some. I’m not a confident crocheter and I am painfully slow. BUT I’m trying and we’ll see if I succeed!

Speaking of learning, I had an opportunity to teach some new knitters ten days or so ago. One of my friends and co-workers was my super helper because what I thought was six students turned out to be six-teen students. That’s a big group to teach to knit in one hour! BUT together we taught them how to cast on and knit. There are a few in the group who had knitting experience and they will teach further. This group was part of Colby College’s Jan Plan class that’s being taught by my friend Katherine Ferrier. The students will learn to mend, to hand sew patchwork, to knit/crochet and yarn bomb and I may have forgotten something. I’ll be heading to Colby after work on Thursday to see what they have accomplished in their short month-long class. It was really fun to work with Katherine and to see the students pick up knitting. I look forward to seeing their yarn bombing! I love helping new knitters learn to knit – and grateful for Bette’s help!

Jan Plan “Radical Stitches” Class – I hope I got the title of the class right!

I’ve written way too much today but I wanted to get caught up. I’ll leave you with this morning’s post from the porch. It’s so pretty in the snow! The rocks along the shoreline are all covered up! I hope this snow and cold kills some ticks!

Gone knitting!

FO!

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

I haven’t left the house today. I started the day making two quiches for Thanksgiving morning (or the morning after) and I also did some work around the house, some laundry, and I made some pumpkin dinner rolls, too. It was a very busy day and it’s now after nine o’clock at night and I’m ready to go to bed but I wanted to let you know that I have finished the baby blanket!

Last night I had a setback … I saw a cable that was too long which meant that I missed the right spot to cross the stitches and since it’s a guest, I had to go back and fix it. I had two choices in doing that … I could rip back the whole thing to where the mistake was or I could drop the cable stitches down and re-knit the cables. Do you want to guess what I did?

I dropped the cable stitches down.

Each of the three cables is six stitches and there were a lot of rows to drop down. In the first photo, you can see I am pointing at the extra long cable. I dropped the six cable stitches down to the row before the stitches needed to be crossed (row 4 of the 8-row cable pattern.) The big mess is in the second picture. The third one is after the cable had been fixed. I had to do this three times because when I make a mistake, I do it really well. LOL

The bottom left photo is where the blanket was and how it looked after the stitches were fixed. AND today I got it finished and washed and it’s now drying. It will be all ready to deliver to my sister-in-law when we see her at Thanksgiving time. No delivery fee. Yay!

I’ve gotten a (very) few rows of my Zinnia-colored Easy Folded Poncho knitted today, too. Tomorrow I can go back to my regularly scheduled knitting … most pressing right now is the Jamberry Cardigan and at least one of the hubby’s socks for Christmas. Bless his heart, he’s used to getting his Christmas socks in various grades of “finished”. Sometimes he’s gotten yarn. LOL

I have to make a cheesecake and an apple pie tomorrow and I have to leave the house because I have an appointment and an errand to run. So, now I will say goodnight.

Gone knitting.

Since You Heard from me Last …

Posted on November 5, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

I’ve been a busy person! Since I’m feeling better, I am finally able to wrap my head around all the things that need to be done before winter actually hits and around our house, in particular, that’s a lot of stuff. We are bringing in the outdoor furniture, blowing leaves, and I’ve bought some insulated curtains for our big windows at the front of the house so that we can keep the heat inside and hopefully cut our heating bill. I’ve got all the parts of this project arriving today, I hope, so we can put it all up this weekend. Well, Sunday, since I’m working on Saturday.

I’ve sent Advent calendars to my kids, caught up with the laundry, finished and sent off my daughter’s fingerless mitts, and several other “chores”. It feels good to get some stuff checked off the (never ending) list.

I finished the knitting part of Sylvie’s (our granddaughter) Christmas sweater and have begun the embellishment. She loves Frozen this year and I hope she’ll love a sweater that’s loosely based on the idea of Frozen. I had the icy-purpley-blue chunky yarn in my stash and had the plan to use a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern to knit a pullover sweater. That part was done last week. The sweater took no time at all. Now the hard part starts. I had decided to embroider/duplicate stitch snowflakes with white yarn and some silver thread. So far, it’s turning out pretty well. I think I’ll be happy with it but the “stress” of creating different snowflakes is hurting my brain. So, I’m going to stop for now and add some more tomorrow. I think I’ll make some silver snowflakes, too, but here is what it looks like after a morning of work …

I’ve been working on a pair of socks for Sylvie as well. She loves my handknit socks but her parents don’t love having to hang socks to dry so I’ve been using King Cole Footsie yarn which is a fingering weight yarn that’s not wool and can be washed and dried in the dryer. BUT the kid’s feet have grown so fast. The last time I made her socks was at the beach in September and they’re already too small. Her favorite color is purple and here are the bigger socks (in the same yarn as before.) I’m making these a little more than six inches long. Hope they’ll fit for a couple of months. I’m using the Yankee Knitter pattern #29 Classic Socks for the Family.

I found a recipe for a French Apple Cake on the internet, in a meme, and decided to try it yesterday. It’s ok. Not great. Lots of apple and not enough cake IMHO. But the hubby is happy that I baked and I was going to bake today but I have a board meeting at 5pm and I had to get ready for that this morning – shower and get dressed and review all the documents for the meeting. We also have a finance professional development session in advance of the meeting planned for our newer members. Anyway, the cake will be eaten and my hubby has something sweet to have with his coffee. Next week I’ll bake more … I think scones are in order.

AND I’ve been trying to catch up with my houseplants. I have grown three lemon trees from seed. They are all at different stages and sizes. One is in a huge pot and the other two are medium and small but they’re all indoors now. I also have several orchids, one which appears to be struggling, and a few African Violets, and we have other plants too … one is like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. It is taking over our entire house, it loves it here so much and I continue to take cuttings from it and plant them and give them away and it’s growing so fast that I truly can’t keep up. I have three pots worth to plant and there are a couple of “legs” of the plant that are ten feet into the living room! That’s the long story about my new Clivia plant that I bought from a local nursery and brought home a few weeks ago. It was blooming when I brought it home but then we left for two plus weeks and the flower is gone AND the plant is covered in a white sticky powdery looking something. I suspect it’s a bug so I sprayed it with some home made insecticidal soap and washed the leaves and will keep it separated from the other plants until it’s clear of the bugs. Good grief. That took a bit of time this morning. Watering all the orchids, the plants in our bedroom window and the lemon trees. (Our heat is one and it’s very dry in our house. Time to hook up the humidifiers again.)

I cut off the flower spikes from the orchid and repotted it in orchid medium with no other materials in it in a smaller orchid pot. I just have to pay attention to it so it doesn’t dry out too much but it seems to have a couple of good healthy roots. Time will tell. I also decided to try to root a couple of the flower spikes – apparently you can cut the spikes and if they have a thingy where the flower spike will eventually pop out, you can get a baby orchid. My cut pieces look like they may indeed have that happening. I’m crossing my fingers. If it works, my dad will be so excited (he’s in heaven so I won’t see him but he always fought to get orchids to bloom and thrive. I seem to have the orchid prowess that he didn’t have. He’d be proud that I am having success with them and I love the plants so much.) I’ll post more as the baby plants and the mother plant start to feel better and grow again.

The leaves are truly falling off the trees. Oaks, which we have lots of in our yard, are the last to drop leaves but the yard is full of oak leaves. Hubby will be blowing and raking this weekend no doubt. It’s totally dark now at 5pm and that means it’s time to light up the inside and snuggle in for the winter. I don’t mind winter here at all. It’s so pretty and quiet and a good time to watch some television and knit more. We are so grateful to have such a good life.

I’ve also been cleaning up and straightening up my stash (at least the part that you see). I’ve got four shelves of yarn in my studio that I’d love to make doors for so they’d be more protected but I haven’t made that happen yet. SO once a year or so I pull down all my yarn and clean the shelves, refresh the bags of lavender, and put everything back on the shelves. This year I’m adding some of the sweater/garment quantities of yarn to my Ravelry stash list, too. I’ve gotten two of the shelves done and have two to go. Progress! It does feel good to care for the investment that I’ve made and to know that if I am stuck at home for another several months (or years) that I have enough yarn to keep my hands busy.

Gone knitting.

Musselburgh and WIPs

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

We got up early this morning and spent a good two hours watching the lake. Highlighted by the baby loon and his/her parent feeding right in front of the house. The lake was totally smooth for a time. And it was so quiet. A breath of fresh air after a busy summer and a busy Labor Day weekend.

I spent a chunk of it making a sample for the store. I chose a Yarn Snob Worsted weight wool in the Times Square colorway. Mostly because we have no samples of Yarn Snob knitted up. And, being worsted weight, it was going to knit up more quickly.

This hat pattern is wonderful!!! I’ve made one before but I had to remind myself how to do the pinhole or Emily Ocker’s magic cast on and I knew that i particularly liked Jen Arnall-Culliford’s method which is simple and doesn’t require a crochet hook. Just a pair of DPNs. (Ultimately you need a set of 4 or 5.) I really liked the Yarn Snob yarn and this hat will be a modern sample for the shop in an unexpected yarn. I made the toddler size because that is what the yardage allowed for. I loved that the colorway was named after a NYC landmark that happens to be in the heart of the theater district and my kiddos are all employed in the arts in New York City. So a nod to Times Square added a smile to my face. When the winter sets in, I’ll reclaim the hat for my granddaughter.

I spent the past couple of days working on my Vanilla Sweater by Corrine at The Wooly Thistle. I may have said this before but the color is what I fell in love with and I “had” to buy the kit. as happens with almost every simple pattern I attempt, I am struggling to read my knitting – it’s either the light in my atelier or my aging eyes or both combined with the heathery yarn but I can’t see the increases well enough so I’ve been thinking back and reknitting now and again. But I’m getting there and am almost to the end of the increases. I am up to over 300 stitches around so the rounds take a minute. I’m knitting on gauge so I will be excited to see how it fits.

I’ve also been working away on one of the critters in Louise Crowther’s book Animal Friends. I bought the yarn a few months back for three of these animals and I’m beginning with Noah the horse. It will be a gift for my daughter who loves horses. It’s fun to knit but a little bit hard on my hands because it’s knit at a tight gauge in teeny needles. So the stuffing doesn’t show through the stitches, of course! I’m making good progress. Two legs to go and the outfit and I can sew it all together.

I had nearly completed the garter stitch section of my All About the Ruffle shawl. Over 350 stitches on the needle. and I just didn’t love it. So, today I frogged it and it’ll be something else, probably a tee shirt. So boo and yay. Boo that I frogged all that work but yay that it’ll be something that I will love.

I was gifted and also grew some giant zucchini and I’ve been trying to use it up before we leave for vacation. I’ve got some chocolate zucchini muffins in the freezer with a loaf of zucchini n bread. Today I made banana zucchini muffins. Hubby seems to think they’re all for him. Ahead of vacation? Yeah, right. He’s been informed.

If I can’t get it all baked before we leave, it’ll go into the freezer all shredded and portioned into 2 cup bags. I have a lot of frozen bananas, too. I’ve not been baking enough apparently.

We are enjoying the last days or weeks with hummingbirds before they head south. I haven’t seen any male hummers recently and they had off ahead of the female and juvenile birds. So the rest will be heading off soon. We will keep the feeders full for those passing by for a few weeks.

The garden is still giving us food. I picked the first Delicata squash. There are more coming. Tomatoes are coming along too. Peas are still growing and we hope we get fruit before the first frost. I picked most of the lettuces because they were about the bolt. Our garlic is dried and cleaned and ready to store away and use. We need to grow more again next year.

I’ll be taking my Murmuration socks on vacation with my Vanilla sweater and some “purple sparkly” Encore worsted for mittens for my granddaughter and a blue bulky pullover (pattern by Knitting Pure and Simple) in superwash wool. I’ve got two grands to knit for now. Best get going on the tiny knits!

Gone knitting.

Saturday – Peace on the porch and a little knitting.

Posted on August 30, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

I have had a lovely, peaceful morning with my coffee and yarn on the porch. I got up without an alarm, took the dog out, fed the dog and took my coffee out to the porch. It was pretty gray and we even had a little sprinkle of rain. Since then, I went up to my atelier for my yarn and I’ve been sitting here drinking my coffee and knitting and listening to the sounds of the lake. The sounds of home. Hummingbirds chasing each other away from the feeder, ducks quacking by, the train passing heading south, and the splash of an osprey right in front of our boathouse (coming up with empty talons.) And now the sun is coming out and the bees are buzzing in the cat mint.

I’m working on my Vanilla Sweater by Corrine at the Wooly Thistle in Rauma Garn Finull. I fell in love with the color of this yarn and had to buy it. No regrets here. This is a wooly Norwegian wool and I can already feel it softening up as I work it. I’m struggling to see my stitches though with the heathery wool and I’ve had to go back several times when I increased where I should not have. My attention span seems to be challenged right now. Lots going on, hubby away, boss away, the world on fire and I may even need a better light by my knitting chair.

Musselburgh in Yarn Snob “Times Square” colorway

At work we have decided we need some more contemporary samples. I said I’d knit a Musselburgh hat and brought home a hank of fingering weight Yarn Snob yarn with neon pops of color. And then I thought about all the things I have going on and brought it back. I chose, instead, a hank of worsted weight yarn snob. There was enough yardage to make a toddler hat and the. I looked at the name of the colorway and that clinched it. I’m knitting this for a sample and then when it gets colder I’m taking it for Sylvie to wear in the city.

I always have to remember how to cast on with the Emily Ocher’s cast on but I found a Jen Arnal-Culliford turirial and got it done. Yesterday, this hat was a good thing to work on while I was teaching and I made some good progress.

The crown Emma’s some random pooling and now it seems to be striping. It’s all good and it’ll be done soon enough.

I’ve also been working on my shawl, All About The Ruffles. I’m nearly to the full stitch count on the garter stitch section. I wish I had figured out how dull the garter stitch section would be and skipped this project. I sure hope the ruffle section makes it worth while. the “Harbor” colorway in Emma’s Yarn Practically Perfect Sock is lovely and this year is really lovely to work with. I’ve not taken any pictures because a garter stitch triangle is not very exciting but there will be some coming.

I snuck in a Knitting for Olive yarn order before they stopped shipping to the USA. I’ll be knitting one of their designs, too, for the first time. The Wilson sweater has a Henley feel without the buttons and with a collar. I need a black sweater and I think this one is classic and can be worn with our without something underneath. I’m really going to have to invest in a better light to knit with black yarn. (I also have some black linen to knit a sleeveless top with. I love black clothes, I cannot lie.

My SISC continues with Murmuration. Another pattern from the Sock Project book by Summer Lee. I may have already posted this photo but I repost it because there is a mistake here and the photo pointed it out. I’ve since frogged it back and added another (third) eyelet round to the third lace pattern. Good grief. My brain! My focus is definitely struggling with all that’s going on in the world. I am looking forward to our Rhode Island vacation next week and am planning to tune out and turn off social media for a few days to see if that helps my brain to focus. It’s all good in the end but good grief, I’m supposed to be an “expert” and a knitting teacher. I get frustrated with myself when I make such rookie mistakes!

I picked three cherry tomatoes and my first Delicata squash today from the garden. they say that Delicatas are ready to pick when they have stripes and you can’t easily break the skin with pressure from your fingernail. This one is there. I think I’ll have to cook it for supper tonight to see how it tastes. I also have cups (and cups) of shredded zucchini to use and will get it grayed, freeze some of it and bake with some of it. Plan is to make some zucchini bread, some chocolate zucchini bread and maybe a chocolate zucchini cake to take with us to the beach. Yum. We still have e some tomatoes on the vines and a few more delicatas coming along. Lettuces and kale are going to be picked today for salad with my supper.

I guess I’d best get myself moving. I have a bank deposit to make for the store before noon and then I can drop off the banking stuff at the store. The boss is back Monday and I no longer have the responsibility of banking. I had a bowl of granola this morning so I may stop for ice cream on my way home for lunch. More knitting will be worked into my afternoon.

Gone knitting.

It’s Been a Long Week

Posted on August 25, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

It may be Monday but I’m calling it Sunday. My day of rest. Last week I was in the store four out of six days, twice my normal schedule and I could feel it on Saturday afternoon. I’d also been awake since 4:30am when my hubby left to head out to Denver for the arrival of grandchild #2. I’ve been feeling “off” ever since. Partly because it’s lonely here without him and because I’m just weary, I think. Today it’s gray and threatening rain and I sure do hope we get some. Our gardens are so dry and I’m trying to water with great conservation because we have a well and you know what happens to wells in droughts, right? So we flush less frequently (TMI?) and do fewer loads of laundry and water only when really necessary.

I finished my second pair of shortie socks for my August SISC (self-imposed sock club). I thought they’d fit me but they don’t so they’ll be gifted to someone with slightly smaller feet. These have an afterthought heel and having made them, I am reminded why I like a heel flap heel when I’m knitting socks. I’ve cast on a new pair that will be top down and with a heel flap. Photos will be coming soon.

I’ve been working on knitting one of the animals in the Knitted Animal Friends book by Louise Crowther. I’ve had the book and the yarn for quite some time and never seem to have found (made?) the time to knit one. This week I decided to change that and cast on for Noah the horse. These patterns are knit on US 2, 2.75mm needles (suffice it to say, if you’re not a knitter, that these are basically toothpicks) and at a tight gauge. My hands certainly feel it but I am making progress. I’ve got the head, mane, tail and ears finished and am working my way down the body. Nothing is tricky in this pattern other than the tight gauge on tiny needles. I’m going back and forth between DPNs, a 40″ circular and straight needles depending on what needs to be worked. The body parts are knitted flat and seamed so nothing looks like it will when it’s stuffed and assembled. I have to remember to buy some safety eyes.

I had to laugh at the line of eleven pieces of i-cord for the mane. They remind me of tampons and once seen, I can’t unsee it. LOL. The yarn is Sheepjes Stonewashed and I am enjoying the yarn for the most part. Some of the increases are difficult to make without splitting the yarn but I think that’s more about the gauge of the stitches rather than the yarn. I have the Catona for the clothes, too, as the pattern requested. I thought I’d like to make the animals in the original yarn this time and see how it works up. So far so good.

Today I’d love to finish the body and get a start on the legs and arms but I also want to pick up the commission piece that I’ve been working on – I haven’t touched it since early last week when I was working on the back. There’s not much to do to get the back finished and the second side shouldn’t take long either. Then a couple of sleeves and finishing and I can send it off to my client in Louisiana. I’ve promised it in the early winter but I hope to deliver it earlier than that.

This morning I was up early and had my coffee before 8am and I decided to bake. Made some granola for our house and a blueberry cake for a neighbor who’s having some health challenges. I’ll run the cake down later today – when it’s cooled. I saw several emergency vehicles at their house on Friday morning on the way to work and heard from another neighbor about what’s happening. I’m guessing a bit of sweet will be helpful in the short term. I have shredded a huge zucchini and if I get some more baking energy, I’ll make zucchini bread or chocolate zucchini bread. Or both. I still have another huge zucchini in the fridge.

I’ve been checking out the vegetable garden and have picked our first tomatoes. I only grew two kinds of tomatoes this year – yellow tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. We haven’t had a lot of either but I now have two yellow ones and will have a tomato sandwich for lunches this week. We have been gifted some cucumbers, green pepper, beets and one huge zucchini from a work friend and I’ll get the beets roasted (one of my favorites with tomatoes and some feta or goat cheese YUM!). I’m not eating a lot of meat this week because I am cooking and don’t love it any more so roasted veggies, cauliflower crust pizza and maybe some grains will be served. Cooking for one isn’t a lot of fun and I’m not one who loves cooking anyway. What’s a girl to do? I can’t just eat ice cream … that’s what I might have done back in the day.

Hubby pulled our garlic before he left and it’s time to cut off the roots, clean it up a bit and start using it. We will plant more garlic in the fall since we seem to have the knack of it now. My biggest yellow tomato is palm-sized and we have another Delicata squash coming along. That makes three. The bees are happy in our squash blossoms and without them, we’d have no squash. One more zucchini is on the vine and the peas are over a foot tall now and starting to climb. I love the veggie garden!

I’m loving watching our loon family fishing just in front of the house today. The baby is getting its adult feathers and is acting more like an adult but the parents are both working hard to continue feeding it, too. They were close enough to hear their little “peeps” to each other. And I’ve heard from two friends on other Maine lakes that they’ve had no surviving chicks this year. (Eagles.) We are very lucky to have four chicks on our lake and I haven’t heard that any have been taken. There is a real emotional investment in these special creatures on the lake. Between boats, eagles and snapping turtles the dangers are real.

We’ve also seen a lot of Hummingbirds lately. They’ve been draining the feeders and that means they’re starting to fatten up and gather the energy to start their trip back south. It’s always sad when the hummers leave. They add a lot of entertainment on the porch, often flying into the porch and seeming to just stop mid-air to look at us as we watch them. We have at least three females now, and a couple of males … I can only identify the females (one looks older, one has a long neck and the third is smaller).

And last night we welcomed a new grandchild. I have just seen him on a facetime chat and he’s absolutely perfect. I am having wicked FOMO watching my hubby hold him but we’ll be heading out so I can meet him in person soon. We are so grateful for a healthy mother and baby. A grandson!

Gone Knitting.

Happy (Yucky) Saturday!

Posted on June 28, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

And just like that we have nearly reached the end of yet another month. The year is zipping by! Today is like every other Saturday we’ve had for ages in Maine – yucky. It started out cool and breezy and right now it’s actually raining. The windows are all closed up and the lights are on in my atelier. Yuck! But we are making the best of another rainy, dreary, yucky (did I say it enough? day.

We had coffee inside this morning. When I got up my dear hubby was in the living room with a cap on his head. LOL. We chatted about taking best advantage of a rather dreary Saturday and going to pick strawberries but we opted to stay home and get our projects done and maybe tomorrow will be a better day. Even I don’t want to pick strawberries in the rain. So he went to the dump with the dog and I repotted two of my lemon trees that I’ve grown from seeds. They may never flower and fruit, or they might. For now I’m celebrating that I’ve kept them alive long enough that the biggest one now requires a pot that will be so heavy that I can’t lift it. We’ve got it outside for the summer and will have to find it a roller to get it in when fall arrives. It’s smaller sibling/cousin will still be pick-up-able but not for long. AND much like the book When You Give a Mouse a Cookie, I then had to pull the weeds that have grown up around the pot I used and into the garden and around the edge of the house … it never ends.

I’ve written the store newsletter and updated the database with a few new contacts, and emptied the trash cans on the second floor of the house. I wrapped two gifts and put them downstairs to be given. And am preparing to clean out the “curiosities” cabinet in our stairway. It really needs a glass door to keep out the dust because after nearly 10 years, it’s really dusty. Ha! Ha! It needs it badly but we have cleaned it out before. AND I noticed that someone has spilled coffee on the stairs so they need to be swept and washed. If I can get those two things done today, I’ll be very happy to sit and knit for the rest of the afternoon.

I’ve been knitting like mad trying to finish my “summer” sweaters before summer is done. I’m doing really well with my Ankers Summer Shirt. I’m a few inches away from the bottom ribbing on the body and the sleeves aren’t long so they won’t take much time at all. I’m still loving the color of this top and I can’t wait to wear it with m white pants and a tanned face. I hope the sun will come out eventually this summer. The Hei Hei rooster needle tip protectors sure do make me smile!

I cast on the second outfit for Dolores. This one is a caftan designed by Franklin Habit. So far, it’s a breeze of stripes with one row that has a pair of eyelets. Yesterday I reached the point where I am going to divide for the neck/shoulders but I didn’t have any stitch holders or scrap yarn with me so I put it on hold and I’ll work on it again later today. I can’t imagine that it’ll take too much time to wrap this one up. It does make me giggle and I am thinking I may need to have some hangers to display her outfits near where she ends up living in my house. Time will tell. It’s a shame to put these fun and funny outfits away once they’re made, right? When the granddaughter gets older she’s going to love playing with her.

I’ve made a little progress on my Big Love but It’s not one that I can easily work on now that I’m going back and forth across the entire sweater AND decreasing at the button bands. Once I get settled into the new rhythm, I’ll be fine though. I do love this Pima 100 by Berroco. It’s the softest cotton and it’ll be really snuggly. I think I may have to knit a cotton blanket for the living room in the future sometime. In an orange? (Orange is my favorite color these days, go figure.)

What I am really loving about this cardigan and what surprised me about it when I started knitting it is the texture. I had thought it was just stockinette stitch. Ha! I was wrong. It’s a simple enough four-row repeat with a 1×1 ribbed button band that is knitted on from the collar down. I am assuming that somewhere in the pattern, they’re going to have me stitch together the two pieces of the collar where the whole sweater started. But it’s a really pretty sort-of-ribbing texture that is easy enough to remember. I’m readjusting my memorized stitch pattern now, though, since all the pieces are now combined with a false seam between them. I have a feeling that I will make another one of these one day in wool … and maybe a size larger so it’s really cozy to wrap up in. This one, I hope, will be a bit more tailored for summer.

I did make a delicious zucchini galette this week. I found the recipe online from the Smitten Kitchen and I happened to have a bunch of zucchini from my Costco shopping trip that needed to be cooked before it got really gross. We both liked the recipe very much. I liked it because it’s vegetarian for the most part and my hubby cooked himself a sausage to eat with it because he can’t miss meat at any meal. We served it with a salad and it was yummy. I’ll make it again.

I had a fun day on Wednesday with some of the women from my Friday morning knitting class. I headed up to St. Albans to “sew” for the day but I left my sewing at home by mistake. Thankfully, I did have my knitting. Next time I’ll remember the sewing stuff because they’re inspiring me to do more sewing. I learned how to make a disappearing 9-patch and we did a lot of laughing. A lot! It was a much needed mid-week break from the news of the world. I’m so grateful to have these women in my life.

I need to bake again. I have oodles of frozen Maine blueberries to use before blueberry season is here again. I think I’ll make a blueberry cobbler and some blueberry muffins to have in the freezer for our company that’s coming in July and we are going to have quite a bit of it. We are really looking forward to the family that’s coming up and the house is always fun when it’s filled up. (And a bit sad when it’s empty again; at least for a little bit.)

Gone knitting.

Little Tern

Posted on May 25, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

We are at the beginning of what is technically (here in Maine) tourist season which also means summer. Those of us who know Maine are laughing because this is the least summer-like weather we’ve had in forever at the end of May. It’s been gray and rainy for days … weeks! It’s leaving me a bit fatigued, maybe a bit depressed (although with the way things are in this country and around the world it makes total sense) and all I really want to do is sit and knit. I’ve been doing plenty of that.

I have finished the Little Tern blanket by Tin Can Knits in Fyberspates Vivacious DK. This photo looks more turquoise and the real color is more green but I love it and the blanket is an heirloom-quality knit. As I was knitting this blanket, the second one I’ve made, I was thinking about how much I loved making the first one and how grateful I am that I had the presence of mind to buy extra yarn so that I could make this one! I think I’ve written about this before – this pattern and yarn were one of the “kits” in A Year of Techniques, a class that I took several years ago with Jen Arnall-Culliford. It was a series of tutorials that then became a book and you could take the class with or without buying the yarn kits. I did. Mostly because I didn’t know any of the yarns that they were using for the tutorial projects and, boy, am I glad I did. This is one of my favorite yarns but there were many.

Little Tern is designed by Tin Can Knits. It uses a provisional cast on and then the body of the blanket is knit in a textured pattern that is easy enough to (almost) remember. Once the body is done, a lace edge is knitted onto the body on both ends. It’s rather ingenious, frankly. AND it’s absolutely engaging and gorgeous. I seldom knit the same pattern twice and I am actually looking forward to knitting this one again (I have a set of purple Fyberspates Vivacious DK for another blanket in my stash.)

I also finished the quilt that I made for my granddaughter’s sleeping nook at Yaya and Poppy’s house. This fabric was in my fabric collection and I only bought the one piece of flannel that is the backing. I even made the binding out of left-over bits and scraps of the fabric I used for the quilt. This week I hand-stitched the back of the binding and it’s now ready to be put to use. I think she’ll like the bright colors and the soft warm flannel on the back.

We finished painting her little nook. It’s the same width as a crib mattress and it’s really purple. Way more than I am comfortable with but I am thinking that once the wallpaper birds on a wire is up and the giraffe picture is hung, I think it will be a bit less “purple”. But it’s what she asked for … I simple neglected to think about paint colors being darker once they’re on the wall. It’s all good. We backed my IKEA Kallax storage cube unit with a “bead board” panelling, trimmed the bottom of the nook after the panelling was installed and the shelf unit was attached to the wall so it can’t tip over and then the room was painted. We need to cut some slats that will sit up a bit so the mattress is off the floor and then put up the decorations. I still have to make two pillowcases and if I have time, I’ll knit a little blanket like one she has at home. All things to make her stay here at Yaya and Poppy’s feel like home. I’m crazy like that.

I’ve been working on finishing up little projects and have done well doing that. I’ve knitted and blocked two more tams for my client. She loves these hats and they’re not a bother to make up for her. It’s nice that she appreciates them so much. I also made a little “blueberry” hat for our soon-to-be Denver nugget. I used a pattern by Ann Norling and Malabrigo Rios yarn. It’s pretty cute. Now, of course, I’m knitting a bigger one for Sylvie. She loves blueberries. I’ve been working my way down the second socks’s foot (the first one fits perfectly), and I have been picking up my Jelly Roll blanket. A customer brought in bits and bobs of leftovers and I brought home a few fingering weight yarns that she left to add to my blanket (as if I was going to run out any time soon.) I also made some strawberry jam this week and a batch of blueberry muffins for my hubby. We brought the strawberries at a very good price at Costco on Monday specifically for jam making. Yum!

I pulled another unfinished project out of my cupboard. Ages ago I bought a kit from Jimmy Beans Wool that was to make Franklin Habit’s Dolores (a sheep) and some of her outfits. I got the body finished and then the project went into time out … not because of anything other than my little cast-on-itis and there Dolores’ body has been resting waiting for me to turn my attention back to her. The other day I pulled out the bound off stitches and will be more firmly stuffing her body and then closing her up again. I will be committing time to getting her finished because she’ll be a fun addition to Sylvie’s nook. I think. AND she’ll be finished. I really am trying to get projects finished … I have a few. (Ahem.) I haven’t forgotten the pink mittens either … the first one is mostly finished and the embroidery looks pretty good, actually. Think I can get a second one done?

I have a couple of deadline projects … both are Love and Light by Laura Nelkin. When a couple gets married in our family or has a baby, they get one for their home. I haven’t made one yet for Amy and Jake (they were married a year ago-ish) so I’ll make one now for their baby’s nursery. I’m calling this baby the Denver nugget and he or she is due end of August/early September. Sylvie has one in her room in NYC and it’s used as a nightlight. I’ll make one for her nook here so it’s just like home … and not at all since she won’t be sleeping in a crib for the first time ever. We are all crossing our fingers that she stays in bed like she does at home. That reminds me that I need a bookshelf for her wall.

Gone knitting.