Queen Bee Knits

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

Favorite Pullover For Women

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

I was up early this morning and wanted to be sure to write a post about having finished my Norwegian pullover. Did you read that? Read it again, please. I am finished with my Norwegian pullover! It’s been nearly a year since I cast on but I have finally finished it … and it fits! I wore it yesterday despite the fact that it was still a little bit damp in the colorwork areas.

I started on this journey by taking a class with Knitography Farm. The first class turned into a couple more classes and culminated in knitting this sweater. I had to purchase the book Norwegian Knitting Designs 90 Years Later on Amazon to get the pattern as it appears it’s nowhere else. This book is a coffee table book of traditional Norwegian knitwear designs. The original book is in a pocket at the back of my book. (Since I have some leftover yarn, I’ll likely find another small project to knit up with the yarn.) I loved the Favorite Pullover for Women immediately and knew this was the “genser” I wanted to make.

I ordered the yarn from Patricia at the farm. It is a Norwegian wool, Ask Norsk ullgarn, and it’s a bit sticky but squishy, too. Perfect for colorwork. The yarn is a sport weight that looks like fingering, frankly. I purchased 5 hanks of the main colorway and one each of the remaining colors. I chose to make it in the traditional colors as shown in the purple colorway in the middle of the photo above. I didn’t love the yellow color and have a sweater’s worth of a brick red-ish color but had nothing in purple which helped me make the choice. (I have one hank of the main color leftover and quite a bit of the darker grays, just a little of the light gray.)

Knitting the yoke was the most fun, of course! Once the sleeves were divided, the stockinette stitch down the body and sleeves was tedious at best. It had been set aside for my Arne & Carlos Advent Mini Jumpers, and a 1-year-old’s bikini and a mermaid tail and sea shell top, among others but I brought it with us when we went to the beach in September and worked away in bits and pieces when I found a few minutes. I got most of the first sleeve finished in early October and then hit a “snag” because I had a wrong number of stitches for a colorwork pattern with an 8-stitch repeat. While I pondered the predicament, I knit a couple of pairs of Christmas socks, designed and knit a 1-year-old’s Christmas sweater and hat, and I may have started knitting a pair of pink mittens among others (again! See the theme developing here? Hit a snag, cast on another new project.)

I chewed on the adjustments that I needed to make for quite a while, consulted a few knitting friends and then I knit, re-knit and re-knit again the first sleeve to get the decreases spread down the sleeve correctly and so I had 64 stitches at just the right spot to start the colorwork at the bottom of the sleeve. I knit the second sleeve first with the same adjustments and when they were both the same length with the same number of stitches, I tried it on to make sure the sleeves would be the right length and knitted the colorwork and ribbing. Success sure felt good when it had all worked and I could move forward again.

The colorwork at the cuff was very simple and quick as was the ribbing and before I knew it, I had a finished sweater. Finally! I blocked it Monday night and wore it yesterday … it fits! I’m delighted.

Favorite Pullover For Women blocking Sunday night 2/12/24

Gone knitting.

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.

Favorite Pullover for Women

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

This is a photo of the pattern that I am currently working on. Another WIP that has been lallygagging in my studio on the shelf while I did all sorts of other little things. I’m “forcing” myself to finish the sweaters (especially the sweaters but there are others) that I have started and never finished … and maybe to have a look at yarn that I’ve bought for sweaters that I’ve not yet started … but I digress.

Favorite Pullover for Women is only in the book Norwegian Knitting Designs 90 Years Later which I purchased a year or so ago on Amazon. It’s a big book full of beautiful patterns. I was taking a traditional Norwegian “genser” class online and this was one of the patterns suggested for beginners like me. (Not a beginner knitter but a beginner who has never knitted a traditional Norwegian genser.) I loved this sweater at first sight.

I bought the yarn from Knitography Farm (who was also teaching the class.) And it’s a lovely sport weight 100% rustic wool straight from the farm in Norway. I bought the traditional colors for the yoke which are all shades of gray – light, medium and dark – and the purple for the body and the pops of color in the yoke and sleeves. The yarn is called “Ask Norsk Ullgarn” (100 grams/ 315 meters).

Saturday night I was knitting away and was really close to finishing the colorwork/stranded section of the yoke. I literally got to within the last three stitches of the second-to-last round and I was short ONE STITCH! One!!! So, back I went to look at the last round because all the other rounds had worked in the pattern, and voila! one dropped stitch was popping its little medium gray head out of the sweater with its tongue sticking out at me. Ugh. That meant that I needed to rip back almost the entire last round … because, of course, the stitch had to be within the first 30 or so stitches of the round not the last 30. But because frogging is part of every knitters life and it keeps us knitting “experts” humble, I frogged all the way back and re-knit the last round and the stitches were perfect.

Yesterday morning I returned to my Favorite Pullover and finished the yoke and it’s really beautiful. I love it. This afternoon I’ve finished my increase round under the stranded colorwork and now I can just knit for a couple of inches until I hit the point at which I can separate the sleeves from the body of the sweater.

I will be trying it on before that time so that I know if it’s long enough for my body and with any luck, that’ll happen later this week. There are a lot of little stitches to one round now … I’m at a stitch count of just shy of 400 stitches … 396 to be exact. So every round is almost 400 stitches and there are likely four or five rounds to the inch so I have a couple of thousand stitches to stitch between now and then. Our car ride to have our TSA pre-check appointments tomorrow should be helpful in that vein.

In the foreground of the photo is the neck of the sweater (or the top) and the purple is at the bottom but I’m knitting from the top to the bottom, I hope that make sense. But you can see the unblocked splendor of this pattern and how nicely the different grays play together – even in my lousy light.

The inside is actually just as interesting as the outside. And I’ve photographed it from the same view.

So, the easy (and boring, to be honest) part is ahead of me where I just knit and knit and knit around to where I split the arms from the body and then I’ll just knit around until the body is complete. I have another sweater that’s in the queue that has some complicated cables that I may have to work on, too, when I get tired of stockinette stitch. We’ll see. I’m really determined to get some projects finished before the end of the year. This is one of them. My Arne and Carlos Advent Jumpers are another… also a pattern from Norway and Norwegian designs. I’ve only got five or six to complete and that needs to happen before December 1 so we can fill them and use them!

Gone knitting.

Progress All Around

Posted on August 20, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

This morning I was thinking and I feel like I’m finally feeling more like myself. The last round of Covid that I had in April (after the round I had the week before that got me “stuck” in New York City) must have affected me more than I had thought. I thought it was a mild case but it left me with some pretty severe fatigue. It seems like that fatigue is finally lifting and I am able to DO more than I have been able to do BUT I also realize that I have limitations and I need to listen to my body and quit when I am ahead.

We decided that we had to hit a few of our around-the-house chores this morning before we give in and do something more fun. I’ve been thinking about cleaning some of the more disgustingly dirty screens in our bedroom windows and in the upstairs bath. I’m happy to report that the inside part of this chore is done. The outside chore will be waiting until next spring when N is (hopefully) fully healed and has his full balance back after his hip replacement surgery. It’s been four months now and he’s made (is making) lots of progress but he overdid this week and he was hurting yesterday … enough that he got his cane out again. He’s out sanding and cleaning/refinishing our teak dining set that we have moved onto the front porch. It’s a little bit big for the porch but we are finding we like using it out there and we will probably like it even more in the early fall.

I’ve been knitting and sewing this week. I’m aiming to hand-sew something every day in order to have it become a daily habit. I’m working on a “Love Note Quilt” inspired by Heidi Parkes. I have been taking her class on Creative Bug and I really like the artistic quality of her quilts. They’re in no way traditional pieced quilts but they’re each unique and I find I am liking having the creative license to stitch what I want. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to completely quit the traditional quilting yet.

I’ve stitched another needle case. I find these little projects very fulfilling and I have an idea about what I will do with the ones I make. I will continue to show you the ones I make but I’m not going to tell you my plan. Haha. (*evil grin and hand-ringing) The most recent one used this cute vintage-y cowboy fabric and I stitched it with red floss which I think looks really cute. I didn’t applique another piece on it because I really wanted to focus on the cute little cowboys.

I’m working on a stuffed toy for my granddaughter for her birthday. She’ll be one year old in just a few short months and I’d better get moving because life is bound to get busy. My daughter, her mother, loved the Very Hungry Caterpillar book and I’m knitting a caterpillar and a sweater for S. The caterpillar pattern is free on Ravelry and you get what you pay for with this pattern. It’s not very well written and I could think of several ways that I would change it if I was to knit it again. I may actually pull out the ends and Kitchener stitch the head to the body rather than finishing it as the pattern suggests. I’ll update my project page with whatever I decide.

I knitted the little shells top for my granddaughter. This was my daughter’s idea. She asked me to knit a top to go with the mermaid tail that I made for S when she was born. Her mom wants to take some photos at the beach and we can’t have a topless mermaid, now can we!? Yaya to the rescue! I hope that I made the top so it’ll fit but I’ll bring my tools to the beach in case we need to make any adjustments. Photos will be coming soon.

I have also knitted another chemo cap for a gift for a friend who just announced that she has cancer. I wish I could do more but this is what knitters do when they can’t do more. And if she doesn’t lose her hair, she can gift it to someone who will. Passing on the good will and the love and healing wishes in every stitch.

Last but not least, I’ve pulled my Favorite Pullover for Women out of time out and have started to make some real progress on the yoke. This sweater may not even fit me. The sizes were a little bit too close to zero ease for my liking but if I add a few stitches to the under arms when I cast on after the yoke, I think I can make it work. It’s a lot of work to be sure, especially if I don’t know it’s going to fit. I have a colorwork sweater that I love the fit of and I’ll be measuring this one against that one when I get the yoke complete and before I go further. The good news is that I am wrapping up another WIP (work in progress, Muffin.) This design is only found in a book called Norwegian Knitting Designs, 90 Years Later. I’m knitting it with Norwegian wool that I bought from Knitography Farm after taking several of her classes online.

chemo about all we’ve been up to on the lake. It’s been a string of several lovely late-summer days. The lake is getting quieter as the summer people head back home to get the school year started. Maine Arts Academy, on whose board I serve, welcomes teachers and staff back tomorrow and the kids come the following week. We start this year in our new building in Augusta and we are all so excited to be independent and free to have activities after school, etc. which we couldn’t do before. We are also developing some wonderful partnership with Augusta Arts and civic groups. I’m so proud of our school!

I’ve got zucchini to grate. I’m making fritters this afternoon.

Gone knitting.

My Favorite Genser – My Next Knitting Adventure

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

We are home again after a wonderful weekend in Marblehead with the family. My brother from Louisiana, my sister from Arizona and their “spice” (plural of spouse, right?) came to see Noah … and his parents. There is never enough time together and we are always grateful for the time we have – life is never guaranteed.

While there, I had a little knitting issue. My neck and jaw felt weird when I was knitting for awhile. I first noticed it in class on Friday and then in the car driving down to Massachusetts. When I stopped knitting, the weird feeling stopped, too. I stretch my neck and shoulders pretty often when I knit but I seem to have a muscle or nerve something going on. So, I didn’t knit a lot or for long periods of time and it’s feeling better enough that I knitted last night and it didn’t happen. I’ll be cautious and may book a massage this week.

I cast on a Sophie Scarf in Berroco Folio on a US 4 needle. I don’t know why Berroco discontinued this yarn. It’s got such a great hand and it knits up so nicely. I grabbed up a couple of gray colorways to make a few Sophie scarves. Sophie is a simple garter stitch scarf surrounded by an i-cord edge. I’m making the small version this time and will make a second (and maybe a third) larger one next.

I cast on my Favorite Genser last week and did my swatching with purpose. Last night I measured my gauge and I have missed the mark. I am supposed to have 24 stitches to four inches and I have 26. Ugh. Ah well, that’s the way it goes sometimes. This is a new yarn that I am working with and a lot of new information from Patricia at Knitography Farm in Norway. So, I’ll pull it out to the ribbing and knit it again with a slightly larger needle and see what happens.

I’m excited about learning something new, though. I love working with new yarns. I have two skeins of this yarn in my stash … my recollection is that it was to knit a pair of mittens designed by Arne & Carlos but I can’t find the pattern. Eventually I will figure it out or use it to make something else. I’ll be writing about this genser project again as I get going … and as I get the gauge right. It’s always interesting to work through the process. I’m doing this through the Knitography Farm website where they have online classes. I’ve bought a couple of the classes and the support is incredible. Patricia is certified to teach these traditional Norwegian patterns and she has endless knowledge that she generously shares. She also is a good steward of a flock of sheep and makes yarn from their fleece. Check her out at knitographyfarm dot com.

Gone knitting.

Another Failed Snowmageddon

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

This is our view from the front porch this morning. As you can see, there is no snow falling. The world of Maine has closed because a Snowmageddon was forecasted. We were told to get ready to hunker down, we’d be getting snow overnight last night, all day long today and tonight, too. It’s not even 10am and the snow has ended. We have about two inches here in Belgrade. Nowhere near enough to consider it worth staying home and hunkering down.

In my next life, I’d like to be a weather person. It seems to me that it’s the only job where if you’re wrong much of the time, you get to keep your job. Businesses were deciding to close yesterday, a full 24 hours in advance of a storm. The whole state is closed!

So, I have in front of me a day to do whatever I want. Normally, I’d be at the store today. I went in yesterday as a favor to the boss in advance of the storm. We were super busy and the boss’s brother was at work on day two of having tested positive for Covid. My Irish stepped in front of the normal, reasonable me and I blew a gasket. I told the boss that it was him or me going home and that she didn’t have my back and that I felt betrayed. Come to find out that the sit and knit group the day before was ushered in through the yarn doors (usually kept locked) so they didn’t have to walk by her brother … “but he was masked” and two of his employees “were ok with it”. What about the woman who came in yesterday with oxygen? What about the Colby kids who go home to a dormitory? What about those who are unable to be vaccinated or have other reasons for being high risk? Employees on the fabric side of the store were told to keep it quiet. The yarn side was told nothing. UN-believable.

Anyway, so today I have a day to do whatever I want and I “should” be finishing the vest that I have on the needles. I’m so close and it’s bright enough to pick up the stitches around the arms and neck and knit for a few rounds. It would be good to finish this before I start the Choose Your Own Path Genser class with Knitography Farm. My yarn arrived yesterday.

Traditional Norwegian Yarn for my Choose Your Own Path Genser Course

I’m excited to start this course and make a beautiful sweater! I’ve bought the book that was suggested and I love the sweater. The yarn is sport weight by American Standards, the Norwegians don’t seem to need the guidelines as we do. They know that with this yarn and these needles, they’ll get gauge and will be able to make a sweater that fits. Americans seem to need more hand-holding and guides. I’m eager to give this a shot and I already know that the pattern will make a very close-fitting pattern so I will be needing to adjust the stitches to make it fit me the way that I want it to. I like a little bit of ease in my garments. I know that Patricia will be offering lots of help with this. It’s always fun to knit something new and to learn something new.

This is the sweater that I’m making. I’ve bought the purple yarn pictured on the model in the center. I struggled with color choice, though, because there were so many lovely colorways. I don’t have anything purple in my closet so that’s what I went with.

I’m knitting socks for the hubby as part of his (past) Christmas gift. I’ve finished the first sock and will cast on the second sock today. I will be endeavoring to write down the way I made the first one because I think the pattern was wrong. I tried to follow the pattern twice and twice the ribbing didn’t line up properly. On the third try, I just watched my knitting and put the ribbing where it needed to go. They’re such pretty socks; I love the cables and the way the heel is knitted is a bit different from the sock pattern that I usually knit.

I’m also knitting little baby socks. Little Miss is now 4 months old and starting to be more talkative, rolling over and grabbing and holding her rattle and toys. Her aunt had Covid a week or so ago and, once officially negative, her priority was to go see Sylvie. She’s changing so quickly from week to week, it’s incredible. I won’t be sure that these socks fit until I try them on her but I did my best guessing. Supposedly they won’t fall off – I’ll believe it when I see it. Anyone who’s ever dressed a child knows that socks fall off almost immediately. It just happens.

On Tuesday I made my first King Cake. I have a brother and sister-in-law who live in Louisiana. Since I’m linked to the south and Mardi Gras, I saw a recipe for King Cake in the NY Times and decided I’d try it. Despite the fact that it took my dough a couple of more hours to rise than it was “supposed” to, it turned out to be pretty tasty. The recipe had caramel apples in the center of the cake which is a bit untraditional but it’s pretty tasty. Next year I’ll try a more traditional cake and I’ll have the right colors of sugar to be authentic. Haha!

I should have taken some to work yesterday to share! I think this may be more cake than two people can eat before it gets stale. Or maybe I can freeze it. Note to self: don’t frost the whole cake at once unless you have an army ready to eat it. It doesn’t hold up under plastic wrap.

Gone knitting.