Queen Bee Knits

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

Monday – aaaand I’m on hold

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

Well, it seems that it’s Monday again and I’m on hold with Electrolux/Frigidare because hubby’s 2 year old air conditioner that was a replacement for a 2 year old air conditioner is broken. Does this seem like a pattern to you? I have approximately 19 minutes to wait on hold and since I’m still not feeling particularly energetic, I thought I’d just wait. I hope I can drag half of our laundry to the laundromat today but it may be tomorrow. We’ll see how I do.

Today our gorgeous purple iris is blooming. This is one of my favorite flowers in our garden. Well, actually, they’re all my favorite when they bloom because they all bloom at different times: yellow iris, white iris, peonies, lilacs, forsythia, daisies, echinacea, astilbe, day lilies … you get the drift. I loved seeing my purple iris this morning and today it’s my favorite. Don’t tell the others.

I’ve been doing a little bit of knitting and a lot of thinking about knitting as I recover from Covid. We both got it somewhere in our travels and in the wedding bliss but we’ve both weathered the virus well and haven’t been too terribly ill. Thank goodness! I’ve been without a fever for a couple of days and yesterday the cough subsided for which I’m really grateful. I hope with another couple of days of relative rest, I can return to work later this week.

My second gray Hermione’s sock has turned the heel is well on its way out to the toe. I have to re-check my notes to see how long I knitted it before I started the toe because I’m that close. I do love the texture in this pattern and I love the Coop Knits SocksYeah! yarn. It’s soft and not at all splitty. It makes knitting socks a cinch. I hope my sister will like them. The next pair of socks will be for my brother-in-law. Two great couples will be gifted custom knit socks this fall/winter.

I’ve also be working on my River cowl by Yumiko Alexander. I am really loving working with the Sonder Yarn Company Muse yarn. It feels great in my hands and it’s a tiny bit thick and thin at times which makes it interesting. I think the drape, once blocked, will be gorgeous. I also love the color! The pattern is fun and easy enough to not take up too much of my brain’s band width (which hasn’t been great with my covid brain!) I’ve completed the five repeats of 66 rows of the “hard” work of cables and dropped stitches. There were a couple of places where I forgot to twist edge stitches so that when I dropped the purl stitches and unravelled, it wanted to go too far. Thankfully, I knew this was a problem and stopped the process. Grabbed the stitch and wove it in with a new piece of yarn so it will stay put. And it barely shows. Since this is for me, I’m good with that fix.

I’m measuring the length of the edge of the River cowl at 52 inches long at the five repeats of 66 plus 1-9 for a total of 339 rows so far and the pattern wants 52.5 inches so I have a couple more rows to complete to make the length what they’re asking for and then will begin picking up stitches along the edge to make the body of the cowl. I’m excited about this one! AND I’m so glad I chose not to make the tee with this yarn. I’ll wear this cowl all the time. (I think!)

I’m still on hold with Frigidaire … it’s been 54, almost 55 minutes so far … and so I’ll just write that I am thinking the next project will be a pair of baby sweaters for my granddaughter and great-nephew and a pink Lane’s Island in Remix Light for myself. And, of course, the socks for my brother-in-law. All of the yarns that I will need are in my stash – yay!

I’m at an hour and 4 minutes. Gone knitting.

Rough Re-Entry; Wonderful Vacation!

Posted on September 14, 2022 by Queen Bee Knits

We had the most wonderful week of vacation in Rhode Island with my kids and their significant others … and their dogs. This was the second time we’ve gathered in Weekapaug where my mother used to rent back when my children were little. They all have memories of our times there. This year we were short Kate and her family. She was in Seattle in rehearsal for a new play but she’s home now and preparing for the arrival of their first baby, a baby girl, in a few weeks. But we had a really lovely time together and the weather was glorious, the beach was gorgeous, the food was delicious and the week went by way too quickly.

This year we baked a cake, we went to a vineyard for a wine tasting (Stonington Vineyard in Stonington, Connecticut.) We took a picnic and tasted wines as we ate a yummy lunch. I took lots of walks because I’m trying to start new habits and be healthier, move more. Some of us played golf and some of us had a meal at the Ocean House. We all wandered Watch Hill and had a lobster roll and some peach ice cream. Most of all, though, we spent time relaxing together.

And then we all had to go home. My re-entry has been rough. Today I feel like I’ve not been away. My stress level has returned to pre-vacation levels and it’s only been 24 hours since we arrived home. I had a meeting to attend before I even had time to unpack and then today the in-person board meeting (for the board that I lead) fell back to a zoom meeting – after a lot of reminders and a lot of work finding a place where we could meet in person. I’m disappointed, frustrated, and concerned about the future of the organization. I have one more year as president of the board and there is no clear path for the future leadership. Too much falls to the president and burn-out is chronic. Tomorrow I will attempt to share my feelings and frustrations without getting emotional. That will be difficult for me – I have ocular incontinence, after all. I look forward to regaining 20 hours each week once my leadership role is ended. That’s what I’m thinking about right now.

I have been knitting, but not too much, while we were on vacation. I started and have nearly finished a tiny sweater for my granddaughter. I have made the Newborn Vertebrae before as a gift and it’s a quick knit in tiny yarn so it’s perfect for a fall in New York City sweater for the baby. Newborn Vertebrae (free on Ravelry) is a top down raglan sweater, an easy knit, knit flat. It’s designed to cover baby’s back and shoulders because baby’s chest is almost always against a caregiver. I wanted my granddaughter to have a rainbow sweater and this is the closest yarn that I can find on short notice. I’ll continue my search for another, larger, rainbow sweater in the future. All I have left is to pick up the stitches around the opening and knit a few rows of ribbing.

I also finished knitting my Aestlight Shawl. It’s blocking as I type. Although … to prove that even the “expert” knitters make mistakes, I noticed a dropped stitch as I was blocking it. It looks like I dropped the stitch during the bind off and because I didn’t weave in all the ends, it’s going to be relatively simple to fix. I love the color and I enjoyed knitting it. I think I have to have a shawl sale to thin out my collection and so I can continue knitting them. I have reached the point where I have too many (is that a possibility?)

I also got the button band mostly finished on my Elton. SO … all I have to finish is the bind off and then the collar and buttons. I need seven or eight 5/8″ buttons but I like to purchase buttons after the sweaters are finished. It’s always nice to put them on a finished button band and see how they look on the actual garment. Because this sweater is so light, I think I’ll need to buy light buttons because anything heavy will sag IMHO. Once I get that accomplished, I’ll have a new sweater to wear to Rhinebeck!!!

I’m going to Rhinebeck! My friend Glenda suggested it and we’ve gotten our tickets to ride the bus from Webs in Massachusetts up to the festival. We will stay near Webs on Friday and Saturday nights to make the driving easier on us. I’m really looking forward to it. And to a possible reunion with some of my fiber camp friends. Since we have only one day, we’ll be studying the maps closely and making the most of our experience.

Off to the post office to pick up our mail.

Gone postal? Gone knitting.

I Hate it When This Happens!

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Queen Bee Knits

I was happily knitting along on my Twisted Rib Hat when all of a sudden I noticed this …

I Hate it When This Happens!

Can you see how I’ve goofed up the pattern?

Simple as it is, I have knitted when I should have purled and purled when I should have knitted. And it’s actually not the top most row that I’ve just finished either! So, in this case, what does one do?

I thought briefly about pulling out my needles and ripping back a couple of rows. But with the twisted rib, and only about ten or maybe a few more stitches in the mix, I figured it may just be easier to fix it stitch by stitch. So, I un-knitted back to the stitch where I first got off course and dropped the first stitch.

The stitch on the pink crochet hook is the dropped stitch.

Now, I have to fix it. Remembering that it’s a twisted rib, each stitch has to be twisted before pulling through the next yarn “bar” with the crochet hook.

Twist the knitted stitch(es) one half twist to the back or to the right before inserting the crochet hook

And then you insert the crochet hook and pull the dropped stitch above it through from the back to the front (this is what you do when you’re picking up a dropped stitch, too.)

Pull the next stitch through from the back to the front. (You’ve inserted the crochet hook in from the front, too)

Now you take the new stitch just pulled through off the crochet hook and give it a twist just like the last time. Insert your crochet hook from the front of the stitch and pull through the next dropped stitch. You’re working from the bottom to the top, picking up a stitch for each row that you’ve dropped.

Then put the stitch on your left-hand needle (when there are no more to be picked up) and knit it – in this case, you’ll be knitting into the back of the stitch to give it that twist!

Since this is a 1 x 1 rib, the next stitch to be dropped and picked up is a purl stitch. You drop the stitch – you may have to give it a tug to get it to drop down below your mistake – and then I work the purl stitches from the wrong side of the garment. I turn the garment to the wrong side and insert the crochet hook from front to back just like I did on the knit stitch on the right side of the garment and pull through each dropped row of stitches (no twist on this one!). When you’ve picked up all the dropped rows, turn the garment to the right side and place the new stitch on the left-hand needle and purl it.

Next! Repeat this process for each of the “mistakes” …

All Fixed!

There you have it! I had to fix about ten stitches – I probably looked away for a few seconds … it may be my little dogs’ fault! They can be so distracting! 🙂

Gone knitting!