Queen Bee Knits

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

The Miracle of Blocking

Posted on December 10, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

It’s a good day for ducks! This morning was gray and cold after a little bit of snow overnight. The biggest news on the lake was the abundance of ducks. There have been a few around but today it seems like we’ve got tons! Flocks! I sure hope they’re enjoying the last days of the lake before the ice starts to come.

I have had a very productive couple of days in my atelier and have finished a fun, project – my Arne & Carlos 2024 MKAL Christmas stocking. The MKAL was written so that participants could knit six rounds a day (very manageable) but I didn’t keep up. So, I ended up knitting several days at a time, twice. BUT this weekend I finished the knitting, knitted the afterthought heel and then blocked it this morning. I love it and I really enjoyed knitting it.

The thing that consistently amazes me about knitting and colorwork, and in particular colorwork knitted in wool, is what happens when the project is blocked. Arne and Carlos recommend steam blocking the stocking with an iron and a wet towel. You place the wet towel on top of the item to be blocked and then gently hold the iron on top of the towel. The steam created by the heat of the iron and the wet towel blocks the wool – it miraculously makes all the little bit wonky stitches all even out.

You can see by the photos (above) that the photo on the left side, pre-blocking is fine but the stitches are a little bigger in some spots than others and the fabric is pucker-y in a few spots. The photo on the right is after blocking and the stitches have evened out the fabric is smoother. I think it’s a gorgeous stocking and I am very tempted to knit the one from 2023 now, too. The only thing that I am sad about is that we don’t have a mantel to hang them on. Blocking, suffice it to say, is an incredible tool!

I also did a little bit of much-delayed Christmas decorating today. I finished the Arne & Carlos Advent mini-jumpers (Advent Calendar 2021: 24 Mini Nordic Jumpers) a while back … in September of 2023. Last year for whatever reason, they never got hung up and used. Well, today I hung them up in our living room. Again, since we don’t have a mantel, I decided to hang them on the antique windows that we have hanging at the bottom of our stairs. They’re fantastic! I even filled them with the rest of the candies from our chocolate advent calendar so that we can finish the advent season using the mini jumpers.

Advent Calendar 2021: 24 Mini Nordic Jumpers by Arne & Carlos

I used the same yarn with the jumpers and the stocking so that the house isn’t in utter color chaos! I love the deep red and green and the creamy white together. And I am tickled pink with them! I think they are very festive, indeed.

We aren’t putting up a “real” Christmas tree again this year. We’re getting to be old bah-humbuggers I guess because we aren’t interested in all the work bringing out the ornaments and lights, decorating and then having to take them all off and put it all back away shortly thereafter. We were away for Thanksgiving and we’re not hosting Christmas again this year so when we finally do pull out the ornaments again, it’ll be like Christmas. LOL. We do have a small, tabletop-size, tree that lives in our stairway and we’re lighting it up for the season. We also have my Arne & Carlos star outside on the side of the boathouse and we’ve bought another two strings of colored lights for the evergreen that we planted out by the driveway when we re-built the house nine years ago. That’s enough festivity for us and we both get to spend more time doing things we actually enjoy doing.

That’s my update for today. I was so impressed with the blocked stocking that I had to sit down and write about it “right now” before I got onto another tangent … and I’ve sewn in my two sleeves, sewed up the pockets, woven in a lot of the ends and now I am going to go seam the sleeves and sides of my pink Lane’s Island pullover … with any luck I can wear it to work on Friday or Saturday because I’ll have to block it, right?

Gone knitting.

Pink Mittens

Posted on November 7, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

When I worked as a clinic assistant an elementary school in Florida being sick was, at least the first year, de rigueur. Not to say that I have ever been fashionable but those little ones carry a lot of germs and I got them all! So today, rather than collecting signatures to get lake funding on the local Belgrade ballot, I’m home in my studio drinking plenty of fluids and resting.

On Saturday we planted our garlic and tulips and daffodils. There was a spot in our perennial garden where we lost a hydrangea bush this year after doing everything we could think to do. When we (the royal we; my dear husband) dug the hole to put in the new bush to replace it, we found a rock. Not just a little rock, a rock big enough that we stopped digging and put the new bush in another location. It’s all good, we wanted to build out our buffer to protect the lake anyway. The semi-dug hole sat just as we’d left it for a month or so until Saturday. It’ll be really pretty in the spring!

On Sunday I read the rest of my book. I was up super early because of the time change and brought my book out of the bedroom when I sneaked away. This is a highly unusual activity for me at any time other than bedtime so I knew something was coming on … I read into the early afternoon and then I started knitting. (The book is The Yankee Widow by Linda Lael Miller. I liked it!)

I’ve got two, make that three, projects actively on my needles. I’m working on a pair of vanilla socks using the Yankee Knitter sock pattern #29 in a light gray. I’ve had some Socks Yeah! by Coop Knits yarn all wound into cakes when I frogged another pair of socks that I didn’t like working on ages ago. When I went to NC, this was my back-up project to the pink mittens because you always have to have a back-up project. Just. In. Case. And I am grateful that I did because I got the pair of socks I was working on finished and didn’t like the yarn I had planned for the mittens which left me starting the gray socks – at least until I found a LYS in Pinehurst!

While the color is best in the first several photos, this is where I am this morning with my perfect pink mittens. They’re growing! The pattern is a bit fiddly because the cables are right on the “edge” of the thumb gusset increases but with a little bit of old fashioned charting, I’ve figured it out.

The knitter is asked to follow a 4-round cable pattern and at the same time asked to increase every third round. Ugh! A knitter’s nightmare. I had to be consciously aware of the two directions and my brain doesn’t calculate this stuff without tools. Fortunately, we have tools. I decided this time, to write a chart for myself noting the 4-round cable pattern and the every third round increase. It worked like a charm. Sometimes a paper and pencil are just what you need.

Nancy’s Vest a couple of days ago in Manos’ Milo

I’ve worked a bit on my Nancy’s Vest, too. I’ve reached the point where I need to start some shaping and have made the first buttonhole. I think it’s too small, however, and will likely frog back two rows and start again. I’m not sure if it’s me or the method that the designer uses that makes the button hole so small. I probably should have tried it in a swatch first … but it’s only a couple of rows. I love the yarn, though, and the drape is lovely. This will be a great vest … one that I thought would be so simple and straight forward but is turning out to teach me a few lessons (yet again!)

I’ve decided to have a shelf cleaning sale on facebook and instagram to see if I can sell some of the creations that I have made and seldom worn (some I’ve never worn). Any that don’t sell will be donated to the soup kitchen or homeless shelter or our local school or PD to give out as they see fit. I can’t keep knitting if I don’t “thin the herd” so to speak. That’ll be coming soon. I hope. I’ve photographed all of the pieces but now I have to measure them and get them written up. It’s more work than I care to do today.

Gone knitting.

GRRRR!

Posted on July 17, 2020 by Queen Bee Knits

When you are knitting lace and there are obvious demarcations between sections, it’s so simple to take a few minutes to put in a safety line … it’s so simple! So, why in the world did I go zipping on by? Laziness is my only excuse.

The Shape of a Bay by Bristol Ivy in Cashmere People Yarns Fingering Weight

So, I’ve been knitting along on my The Shape of A Bay shawl by Bristol Ivy and I’ve been right on the stitch count all along. Until section 7. I learned this 12 rows in when the pattern wasn’t working. I counted my stitches and, if I am counting stitches correctly, I should remain at 523 stitches througout. I had 403. That’s a difference of 120 stitches. Yikes!!! No way to fudge through 120 too few stitches (and I have no idea why that happened.) I had no choice other than to frog back the 12 rows to where section 7 begins and start over and knit more carefully!

A safety line will help. When I get to the 523 spot again, I’ll put in a safety line. A safety line is a long piece of, in my case mint flavored dental floss, thread or yarn that is the same weight of the yarn you’re knitting with or finer. Thread the long piece onto a sewing needle with a blunt tip so as to not pierce the yarn and bring it through the bottom of the stitches on the needle. On the first row after installing the safety line, be careful not to knit the safety line into your pattern. Let the safety line hang out until you are finished or reach another milestone or stitch count that is correct. You can put on in every couple of rows if you want. Or not. The purpose of the safety line is so that, God forbid, you make a mistake and have to frog back (again?!) you can just rip back to the safety line, put your stitches back on your needle and start again. It’s much simpler, especially when knitting a 2-sided lace pattern like mine, than finding all of your stitches, making sure you’ve not dropped any, etc.

As of this afternoon, I’m back to 523 stitches on my needles and I’ll restart section 7.

Humulus by Isabell Kraemer in Ella Rae Classic Wool, sleeve #1

But for the rest of the day, I’m going to work on my Humulus sweater’s sleeve and see if I can get it finished and ready to block. It’s pouring rain and thundering and lighting … I have a very frightened BBD here by my side … so anything that gets wet will likely stay wet for awhile!

Gone knitting!

How to Weave in Ends as you Knit!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Queen Bee Knits

I just completed a pair of wonderful striped Christmas stockings. They are beautiful – but they had a bazillion ends that needed to be woven in at the end of the project

At least a bazillion loose ends!

… unless you knew this trick!

You can weave in the ends as you go and avoid the drudgery at the end! (It’s a bit like avoiding seaming by learning to knit in the round!)

So, “how do you do it?” you ask? Here’s how.

When you’ve knit to the place where you need to change colors or yarns, you can make your first stitch with the new yarn. And what you’re going to do is ” carry” the yarn to be woven in (the old color of yarn) across the next row of stitches by alternatively bringing the old yarn tail up and over your needle and knitting a stitch and then bringing the tail down and knitting a stitch.

Here are a couple of illustrations:

On right is first green stitch. Making stitch #2

Making the second stitch of the first green row of stitches by inserting right hand needle into the second stitch knit-wise.

Carry the yarn tail

Bring the yarn tail to be woven in (the black yarn) across the stitches. First bring the tail up over the needle and then wrap your new yarn around the stitch to be made.

With tail over the needle, wrap your new yarn around the needle to make the next stitch (green)

Bring the tail back down and then finish your stitch.

Make the next stitch “normally” with the tail being held down so that your yarn is carried over the tail yarn (black) when you make the stitch.

Alternate bringing the tail yarn over the needles and holding the tail yarn down while you make the next four or five stitches. That should be enough to hold the tail. You can finish your row and cut the tails close to your stitches.

The tail is woven in and doesn’t even show – unfortunately, I chose black yarn so you really can’t see the tail!

I hope this helps!

Gone knitting!