Queen Bee Knits

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

2026 – A Rough Start

Posted on January 11, 2026 by Queen Bee Knits

I really thought I had a cold or a sinus infection. My hubby had one at Christmas time and I made the assumption that he gave it to me (he has recovered.) Last week I went to the doctor hoping for an antibiotic to kill the infection and speed my recovery. They tested me for Covid, flu and RSV … and you could have knocked me over with a feather when the doctor came back and said I had the flu – B+. Since I had been symptomatic for 6 days, antivirals were out of the question. We just wait. And cough. And blow my poor nose. And cough. Not how I wanted to start the New Year!

So, I’ve been spending a lot of time at home in my atelier. Watching stupid movies and other shows to help pass the time and knitting.

Yesterday I finished my pink Musselburgh. I really think it’s too big. I should probably have made the large rather that the extra-large. But it’s too late now. I like it better when I wear it with the gray side out because I can fold it over more and make the hat sit on my head rather than being slouchy. But if I’m honest, I’m not in love with it. Boo.

I have been working on hubby’s Christmas socks, too. I finished the first one (and he tried it on and it fits perfectly) and I have begun the second one. These socks are a re-knit. It’s a long story and maybe I’ll tell it one day but suffice it to say that I am doing them the right way this time. LOL. The yarn is a heavy worsted/Aran weight sock yarn by Raggi that my LYS has stopped carrying but it’s a wonderful sock yarn for boot socks! I found the pattern, Thompson River Socks, in a magazine ages ago. The socks are knit at a fairly tight gauge so my hands start to get tired after a few repeats of the pattern and I have to move on to knitting something else. BUT the socks are gorgeous and one of my hubby’s favorites. So, they’re coming along albeit slowly.

I’ve also been working on my Gansey Afghan. To be honest, this may be getting most of my attention. It’s not a difficult knit, the blanket in my lap keeps me cozy and warm, and I am really enjoying the yarn and the different textured stitches. I’ve just finished the first ball of yarn and I have one more. I’m knitting this one with Hayfield Aran with Wool which comes in a 900 yard ball leaving very few ends to weave in and it’s going to be washable. The color isn’t coming up well in photographs though. It’s a medium sage-y green and it was on the clearance table at work. I grabbed it up thinking it’d be for my brother and realized he would never use it … he’s always warm. SO, I have re-thought who will get it and I think it’ll go to my daughter who likes earth tones in her house. I don’t think I’ve made her anything other than socks in forever and I think she’ll like it.

I also cast on a new project to keep me happy. I’m knitting the Harlow Sweater V Neck in a yarn that I’ve had in my stash that was planned for a different sweater. I had planned to make a heavily cabled, cropped cardigan but I don’t have the bandwidth right now to pay enough attention to the pattern AND I am fearful that iI don’t have quite enough yarn to make it. I bought all that they had left … and I hope it’s enough for the Harlow. It should be. I am on gauge and am working down the back. It was an interesting cast on from an i-cord and the picking up stitches across the i-cord and knitting down from there. When it’s time to work on the front(s), I’ll, once again, pick up stitches from the i-cord leaving one stitch between and that will make a pretty “line” across the shoulder. I’m still hoping that there’s enough yarn. Not sure why I’m nervous about it but I am. So far, aside from being a different/new to me cast on, it’s an easy knit and the yarn is really pretty and next-to-skin soft. I’m knitting the Harlow with Concept by Katia Cotton-Merino, it’s a cotton tube with merino fluff blown in. I like the heather-y look so far.

I have purchased a couple of different yarns. Both were pre-orders and both were dyed by Lolabean Yarn Company out of Georgia. I’ve loved Adella’s yarns for a long time and this time I couldn’t resist. The first one has arrived. Grinch sock yarn pair! I can hardly wait to cast these bad boys on. The colors are so grinchy and make me so happy. The second pre-order is two skeins of DK weight yarn in the “Good Trouble” colorway. This was a special fundraising colorway and I “had” to buy it. I’m excited to see it when it arrives and it should be here early next week. SO I’m working on getting my blanket done so I can cast on something else that’s new with my new yarn.

I also have a knitting fail to report. (Not sure if I’m considering my Musselburgh as a knitting fail yet, too.) I knitted a Stockholm Slipover recently and was really excited about it. I loved the look of the vest and I loved the yarn I used to knit it. The color is great and it was in my stash so it was a stash reduction, too. I decided to wear it yesterday and it’s too big. I had hoped it’d be a little bit boxy because I’m not a twig but it’s way too boxy and the underarms are the problem. I have read, since finishing the slipover, that others didn’t add stitches to the underarms and I think that’s the problem. There are too many stitches under the arms which make the arm holes too big and the whole garment looks huge … well, it does if I lift my arms or move. Phooey. I think I am going to endeavor to use my sewing machine to take in a couple of inches on each side. If I sew a seam and zig zag it, I should be able to cut off the extra fabric and wear the garment. If I don’t do something it’ll just sit in my closet.

You can see how the arm pit pops out in this horrible photograph. Sorry, best I can do on my own. So, stay tuned for the results later in the month.

So, there you have it. My new year update so far. I haven’t “done” much around our house, I’ve called in sick last week for work and I hope I don’t have to again this week but I have to say it’s not looking good. We also have a trip planned to visit my aunt and uncle in Reno, NV and then head to Denver to see my hubby’s youngest and her family (and our grandson). We are supposed to travel at the end of the week. I’ve got an email into our travel agent to see if we can reschedule the trip … I’m unsure about what the rules are because I am never sick! It never occurred to me that we’d have to change plans. AND of course we have hotels, car rentals, dog kennel, etc. all lined up in multiple places and of course we were/are looking so forward to seeing the family. I guess if we do have to change our plans, we’ll see them but it’ll be later than we had hoped. Time will tell.

Gone knitting.

Monday Funday

Posted on December 8, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

It may not be “official” but winter has descended on Central Maine! We had our first measurable snow fall this past week and have had several flurries. Snow overnight has “covered” my car. Yesterday we had the pleasure of watching a group of Bald Eagles and a crow eating something out on the ice. There were five or six eagles and our trio of eagles but only one was allowed to eat with the eagles. Mother nature may seem cruel but the circle of life is so evident here.

I’ve been busy without much of a break. School (volunteer) work has been active and continues to head in a positive direction. I’m heading to school tomorrow night for the winter recital in Maine Arts Academy’s newly finished recital hall/performance space. I’m excited to see my first performance there. I’ll also drop off my donation of books for the library and a donation for the law mower fund. (Charter School funding is not the same as the rest of public schools. We don’t get the school funding from towns that traditional public schools get which continually have us looking for money for basic needs. (Maine Arts Academy is a public charter school for grades 7-12 which means we accept all students who apply until our classes are filled. We have to follow all DOE standards of education, graduation, and in 2026 will have to have all our educators certified (we were allowed to have experts with a proven record of their expertise teach in the Arts areas. No more.) Can you tell I’m passionate about our school?

But I was going to write about my knitting and what’s been happening that keeps me busy. I’ve been pulling out Christmas decorations that I’ve not pulled out for years. Our fake tabletop Christmas tree lived on our stairway landing between the second and third floors for ages but we put it away last year. I just pulled it out of the closet and half of the lights are out – and nothing I do seems to fix them. SO …. I’ve pulled the lights off and need to find a new strand of lights. Where, if not shopping at Target or Walmart, do I find short strings of small lights? I need to give the tree a shower, too. It’s so dusty! I also pulled out and went through my Department 56 collection and put up my Dickens Village. I’m so happy to see it again! We’ve had it lit up for about a week and we’re really enjoying it. I have some random mismatched pieces that aren’t Dickens and I’m not sure what I’ll do with them (they apparently have no value today despite being very collectible 20+ years ago.) I also found a bunch of Swarovski crystal figures that my ex collected and gifted to me. What will I ever do with them?! AND I have a full box of Halloween light up houses. They’re still taped up since our move to Maine. Guess they can go, too, hun?

Much to my husband’s chagrin, I haven’t been doing any baking at all. I keep thinking about it but I haven’t made it to the kitchen yet. Maybe today. I was going to go to Costco for provisions but we have a meeting at 1pm and I won’t make it back in time if I leave now. Wednesday.

I have been knitting wonderfully irrelevant things not related to what I have to get done for Christmas – and that’s quite limited this year.

I have been working on an orange poncho called the Easy Folded Poncho by Churchmouse Knits. I made mine in Rowan Felted Tween because I have this wonderful pair of boots and thought an orange poncho to match would be fun. I finished it this week and wore it to a funeral mass on Saturday and I was very happy with the result. I haven’t got a finished picture of it yet (I forgot.) But it came out very well. I chose to not add a cowl neckline to it because I don’t love stuff around my neck anymore. It was a good choice (and I have plenty of yarn to add one if I change my mind.)

Blocking the stockinette rectangle was a royal pain … because stockinette stitch naturally rolls, it needs to be blocked with blocking wires and it’s such a large piece (50 inches by 22 inches) I didn’t have a space to block it that wasn’t my studio floor. AND I didn’t have anywhere to pin the wires so gallons of water, some air-dry clay and a bag of unwrapped Christmas gifts worked as weights. Once blocked, you fold it in half and seam one side all but about twelve inches for the neck. It’s quite smart, really.

I have also been knitting the perfect black hat. I saw this one one a podcast and knew I had to knit one for me. I found sequin yarn in Marblehead at Thanksgiving and last week I bought some black alpaca and black mohair and the hat is knit with all three strands held together. The pattern is the City Lights Hat and it says it’ll fit an 18 inch circumference and my big fat Rockwell head is more like 23 inches. SO … I went up to a cast on of 96 stitches which means an extra 4 inches. Hopefully it’ll fit when I’m done (as you can see from the horrible selfie, it seems to be working.) The sequin yarn I found has tiny sequins on it which I love because they’re very subtle and I’m not really a sequin kind of girl. I have a few more rounds to go and it’ll be done. On Thursday at work I’ll have to buy a big black pompom for the top.

I’m working on a pair of Christmas socks for my hubby, too. It’s a tradition. I always put a pair of new socks in his stocking. These may or may not be done by then. I’m trying to keep them a secret but he hasn’t been working (his boss keeps calling it off) so I only have Friday to knit. This past Friday I worked on them for quite a while and then noticed I’d skipped a round somewhere in the chart and I had to frog back (rip it, rip it) several rounds before it was ok. I am now re-knitting them and have reached (almost) the end of the heel gusset. I’m knitting the Thompson River Socks in Raggi yarn that I’ve hoarded for all these years waiting to make a pair again (since the first pair was not perfect but that’s a long story.) These socks are toe up (not my favorite) but goals have been set ages ago and I’m meeting them this year.

Sylvie’s Jamberry sweater has been sitting in the project bag completely ignored. Maybe today I’ll get the duplicate stitching finished on the yoke and block the sweater. It’s going to be adorable and I have a feeling she’s going to love it but I am not a fan of all the duplicate stitch and wish I’d just knitted it in. (I wasn’t paying attention to the pattern, I guess, and I never read the pattern all the way through. Oh well. I just need to do it.

I am working on a pair of fingerless mitts. A kit that I bought at a new yarn/needlework shop that the “girls” and I visited a few weeks ago. It’s a kit they put together for a pair of Nuuk Gloves by Pernille Larsen out of Knitting for Olive worsted weight wool and mohair (two strands held together.) The first glove is finished except for the thumb and I will work the second one to the same point and then add both thumbs together at the same time. The color is a new one for my pallet but I like it a lot. Not sure who they’re for but they’re going to be warm.

I still have Noah the horse in a project bag in my atelier. And the Jelly Roll blanket. And the pink embroidered mittens. BUT I chose to cast on the Stockholm Slipover by Petite Knits. I’ve been wanting to cast on for this for a long time and I thought I had stashed yarn to make it and then doubted myself and then found the yarn again and dove right in. I am knitting with a fingering weight (EYC Tenderfoot) and a lace weight mohair which is actually a suri alpaca (Halo by the Alpaca Yarn Co) held together. The fabric is dense and on gauge so it’ll be a warm vest. I am choosing the rounded collar and if I like it I may make the v-neck, too.

So there you go! I’ve been gifted so many days of life so far and am grateful and hopeful that there will be many more. I lost a college classmate this past week and two of my friends/coworkers lost their mothers. Both lived long lives. But this reminds me that there is no generation between me and death. I am one of the old folks now. (I still can’t believe it and don’t feel like it!) My tea bag gave me a good message the other day and I wanted to share it here as a reminder – it may be my theme for the next year.

It sure is! Gone knitting.

Anker’s Summer Shirt – FO

Posted on July 9, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

I went outside to take a photo of me in my new FO – Anker’s Summer Shirt by Petite Knits – when I had a lovely call from our resident loons and then Mrs. Hummingbird flew by to have a sip at the feeder. Two of my favorites in one photo. (Sorry the loons are too far away to show up.) The loons have a new chick swimming with them and they’ll often leave the chick and go off and fish for food with one parent staying closer by, often returning to feed the chick. I love watching them and look forward to when the chick accompanies the parents up in front of our house.

I’ve officially finished my Anker’s Summer Shirt and am giving it a dress rehearsal at book club today. I am really pleased overall with the fit of this top. It’s not oversized but it has some positive ease and I got the length just right. I also like the length of the sleeves which I lengthened a bit from the pattern directions. I made the XXL size which was to have a finished measurement of 47.25 inches which would give it a couple of inches of ease and it came out pretty close to perfect. I love the yarn, it’s soft but has enough body so that it won’t “grow” as I wear it.

Zooey by Juniper Moon Farm is a cotton and linen blend, DK weight yarn. I have another sweater, a cardigan, made in this yarn and I like it a lot. I think I may like my Anker’s Summer Shirt even more. Mostly, I love the color but I think it’s a good style for me to wear with my white jeans. I used just over 3 balls of the yarn.

I wore it to my summer book club today and got lots of compliments. It’s very satisfying but it’s also satisfying to know that I made my own clothes.

Tonight the loons are out singing to a full moon. We had a chance to watch the new little family later today – one adult was fishing out in front of the house and then the second adult and the chick on its back came over. They hung out in front of our boat house for quite some time but eventually gave us a concert right in front of the house. Both adults were fishing, leaving the baby who can’t dive yet, to “fend for itself”. Now I’ll have to “worry” about my new baby until it grows up and leaves the lake in the early winter. Mother Nature is a most incredible artist!

Gone knitting.

Another Busy Week and The Summer Solstice (aka The Longest Day)

Posted on June 22, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

Today the view is hazier and just not as pretty as yesterday so I’m posting my opening picture from yesterday morning before I had to go to work. Of course it was a stunning day yesterday! I spent the day in the store. LOL. Today isn’t bad but I sure do plan to add the air conditioner to my atelier window because the heat is coming this week. The whole world is burning up. Literally and figuratively. I remain so grateful to live on this lake in the woods of Maine where I can tune out when I need to in order to regain my sanity but I worry about my kids in New York City being in harm’s way. I hope the unilateral and illegal decision by the president and his administration last night doesn’t cause too much harm.

It’s been another busy week here on the shores of Messalonskee Lake. I’ve been trying to get caught up with all the home projects that I’ve neglected over the winter and we are making some good progress. We finally found a chandelier for over our dining room table that we both like – and it’s up. And we’ve bought a living room rug to replace the old one that was my hubby’s mother’s but it was losing fiber in patches and I was afraid it was causing me to cough more than usual (my allergies were dreadful before we took it out.) We found a rug we both like from RugsUSA,com and it was delivered within a reasonable timeframe and with a reasonable price tag. We also finally ordered our Adirondack chairs from Costco and put them together for the back yard (the other side of the house, away from the lake). We have one remaining house project and that’s to find ourselves a new bed. Our mattress is relatively new but it’s too firm for me and it hurts my back and hips. We’ll put our mattress up in our guest room and will get a new one, king size, for us. We just have to find a good one and I refuse to pay $5,000 for a bed. Must be my Yankee roots.

And I’ve been making food like crazy! I was gifted some rhubarb and onlly had enough strawberries to make a couple of jars of jam. This week I bought some more strawberries and made more jam. I also made banana blueberry muffins for my hubby’s sweet treat in the morning.

AND I sewed two pillows (with zippers) for my granddaughter’s sleeping nook. I found these Very Hungry Caterpillar panels several years ago before she was even a thought and put them away … thinking I’d make something for my daughter with them since it was one of her favorite books. Little did I know they’d become pillows for her daughter who also loves the books. So, the back is purple flannel which matches her quilt backing and the front is the caterpillar and the beautiful butterfly. I’m quite please with myself because I can take the covers off to wash them. Yay, me!

Friday was the Longest Day and I’ve been participating in the Alzheimer’s Association’s Longest Day fundraising for several years now. This year I chose to spend the day knitting on Friday because I had to work on Saturday and to have put it off until today would have made my week the longest week ever. I am really glad I did. I knitted from early morning until after dark. This year I worked on three projects primarily.

I have finished the yoke and have split for the sleeves on my Anker’s Summer Shirt. I can’t say that I love knitting with this yarn because it’s a bit splitty at times but I really am going to love wearing the shirt so I am pressing on. I love the deep salmony coral color and it’ll look great with my white jeans as I’ve said here before. Now I just have to knit around in stockinette stitch until I reach the right length. The sleeves will take a few minutes because they’re short and I’ll be happy to finish this and wear it. It’s just about the right time now. The yarn is Juniper Moon Farm Zooey.

Perhaps more fun than the Anker’s Summer Shirt is my Big Love cardigan by Ankestrick. I am knitting this in Berroco’s Pima 100 cotton and it’s the softest squishiest cotton ever. AND the pattern is fascinating. The construction is intriguing and different than anything I’ve made before so it’s keeping my attention. The sweater begins with two rectangles, a provisional cast on, rows of ribbing and the stitches go on hold. Next stitches are picked up from the rectangles long sides and the back of the sweater is knitted down with stitches cast on on either side for the shoulders. There is a very simple 4-row textured pattern for the body of the sweater and ribbing for the collar and button bands that is knitted on as the sweater grows. I’ve just passed where the body is all connected around and this will be the really fun part (I hope.) I love the soft yarn and the cotton will be a perfect sweater to grab for an evening on the porch or after sitting at the beach over a sleeveless dress or tank top. I may have to knit a tank top next. I am loving the yarn and the pattern is so much fun. I keep reaching for it when I have a few minutes to knit.

Love and Light by Laura Nelkin … with a QBK twist

I have been pondering a little gift that I can make to give away to one of my Longest Day donors, sort of like a raffle, and I settled on a Love and Light (light up knitted fairy lights) and bought purple lights. On Friday while I was knitting for the Longest Day, I knitted up a heart in the purple lights but I had way too much left over. I brought it home and since it’s a gift, I want it to be special … and right! So I decided to knit another smaller heart below the first one and it worked! I knitted with fewer stitches and rows and have a double heart light up wall hanging to give away to one of my donors. I’ll do the drawing tomorrow. Everyone’s names have gone into a box on slips of paper and my hubby can draw for me … stay tuned.

So, today is Sunday and the hubby went out to find hinges to build a gate on our porch’s end to keep the granddaughter and four-leggers corralled this summer. We don’t need to lose anybody to the lake. As the grandchildren continue to be added to our family, we really want them to be able to have some freedom at our house but recognize that water is a temptation for little ones who think they know how to swim. We are doing our best to keep everyone safe and sane.

I’m getting myself organized, cleaning up and straightening up and planning for next week which will also be busy but I’m not working on Saturday … at least not at the store. I may be moving beds or painting rooms or baking or sewing … and it’s going to be hot! We moved to Maine from Florida because we don’t love the heat … and it’s gotten hotter every year. I’m going to get my work done early so I can sit and knit in the air conditioning when it warms up.

Gone knitting.

Two Headbands Finished

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

It’s Tuesday and it’s really cold here today but the sun is shining and that always makes my attitude better. I’ve got a Maine Charter Schools Commission business meeting to attend via Zoom this afternoon but the rest of the day is my oyster and I’ve chosen to start with a quick post about the two Petite Knits headbands that I’ve completed this weekend-ish.

I knitted the Weekend Headband for one of my “kids” in NYC. I’ve written about it before. I wanted to talk about the pattern itself here today. I found this pattern to be well-written and clear. From the cast on to the bind off, it was a solidly written pattern. I chose to make the small size (which may have been a mistake) and I may make the medium size, too, because I’m afraid the small is going to be too small for Sheldon. It’s way too small for my big fat head. Basically, this is a K1,P1 ribbed tube started with provisional stitches and ended with a graft. I made a mistake at the very beginning by knitting a round which threw off the entire pattern and the grafting at the end. I “fudged” it by knitting one round at the end and grafting the stitches with Kitchener stitch but I don’t love the way it looks bunched up at the join. I know it won’t show at all because this will be stretched out and it will be inside against the head but it’s not “right”. I think I have enough yarn to make the next size.

Next, I knit the Ingeborg headband for my daughter. This pattern wasn’t as well written and didn’t use traditional/accepted terminology for knitting patterns indicating to me that it was “rushed” to publish and perhaps wasn’t tech edited or even reviewed. When knitting Brioche stitch, it’s accepted to use the terms brk1 and this pattern didn’t use that. As a result, I was quite confused at the beginning of the pattern and had trouble with the odd number of stitches and keeping the pattern going. After several attempts (without the mohair yarn), I did figure it out but it took an inordinate amount of time to do so.

I held two strands of yarn together – one strand of worsted weight Berroco Ultra Alpaca, and one strand of Cascade Kid Seta lace weight mohair/silk – and the resulting fabric is super squishy and soft. I hope my daughter loves it. AND I hope it fits. I knitted it until it was just under 19.5″ or 50cm long and then grafted the stitches together. AGAIN, the directions were not clear and I removed the cotton yarn that I used for the provisional cast on before I should have but thankfully the stitches were pretty “stuck” where they were. I found a brilliant video about grafting brioche stitches online to help me remember how … it worked pretty well and I’m happy with the headband overall. And I love brioche knitting.

Today I’m committed to finishing (I hope) my Winter’s Finery shawl. I’ve gotten almost back to where I had to stop and frog back. I’m purposefully going slowly so that I don’t mess up the stitches so the lace looks good. So far, so good. I’m crossing my fingers and toes as I reach the last row of lace on the first chart.

There’s my Tuesday update on my two Petite Knits headbands … the Ingeborg needs a bit more time to be completely dry before I send it on to New York. I may have bought a denim jacket at Costco yesterday for my granddaughter to send as well. Oops! I couldn’t resist. I love shopping at Costco and just wish it was closer to our house. I know it was worth the trip because I got two pairs of glasses for about half of I would have paid at the eye doctor’s office. Worth the annual membership fee for sure

Gone knitting.

Sunday Funday

Posted on February 9, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

Sunday morning is the only morning that I “never” have to wake up to an alarm. Most other mornings I set my alarm for 6:30am (and head to bed between 9 and 9:30pm.) This morning the alarm went off around 8am and I was still in bed sound asleep. Not a normal morning for sure. But it did feel good to sleep and maybe I will “catch up” with the sleep I’ve lost over the last week with this coughing crud I’ve had. I did get to the doctor on Tuesday and have an antibiotic but the cough remains. The sinus infection seems to be resolving, thank goodness.

So, we’ve been really spending a lot of time at home. I’m starting to get a little bit of energy back and am getting a few chores done around the house. I finally replaced the batter upstairs in the guest room (I’d disconnected the whole thing to stop the infernal beep) and I vacuumed my atelier yesterday. I need to make a trip to Costco tomorrow to stock up a bit and we’re supposed to get more snow on Thursday (my day to work).

I have been knitting! I started my “Bang Out a Sweater” project with Cardoon by Isabell Kraemer. I’ve had the yarn in my stash for this sweater, in two shades of purple tweed by Fibra Natura Kingston Tweed. I like the yarn, it’s got a wonderfully smooth hand despite being non-superwash wool. The color contrast isn’t high but I think it will be enough to work and the weight of the yarn is going to be perfect. If I can bang out the yoke, it’ll be clear sailing down the body. I made some good progress yesterday morning. I’ll work on it again for a bit today.

I finished a headband for my daughter’s friend Sheldon. I made him fingerless mitts for Christmas and he’s asked for a headband. I used the same yarn and the Petite Knits pattern, Weekend Headband. It’s an interesting construction. I made the small size and I hope it fits … I do have enough yarn to make a larger one if it doesn’t. AND if it doesn’t fit Sheldon it’ll fit Sylvie, I’ll bet. I’ll be sending it off with a headband for my daughter that I cast on yesterday. She chose another Petite Knits pattern, Ingeborg. I’m knitting it with two yarns held together a creamy white Berroco Ultra Alpaca and a silver Kid Seta lace-weight mohair silk.

I almost wrote to the designer when I could not for the life of me figure out how to make the pattern work. The pattern didn’t specify which provisional cast on to use so I used a crochet provisional cast on and then struggled to figure out how to keep the brioche rib with an odd number of stitches on the needles. BUT I pulled out some scrap yarn (because frogging with mohair is a pain) and gave it several tries and was able to figure out what the designer meant when she wrote the pattern. She doesn’t use the traditional terminology, BrK1, in the pattern which may be part of my “problem” but once I figured out the two-row pattern, I was knitting up a storm. In fact, I probably could have made two in a day if I had had a clear understanding of the pattern from the get-go. But it’s all good because I’m learning. Last night I found a partial dropped stitch in one of the brioche columns and was able to successfully drop my stitches down and fix it. That also felt really good. A few more inches and I can graft the headband and cinch it at the center front and then block it and send it off. Woo! Hoo!

I’ve pulled the pink mittens out of the time out area and had a look at what they still need to continue and finish. I think I may simply finish the one hand of embroidery on the one mitten and skip it on the second one. I’m not finding that I am enjoying the embroidery and I love the pink mittens so … it’s either cut off what I did already (and that’s not out of the running) and finish the two mittens or finish one mitten with embroidery and one mitten without. Time will tell. I’ll let you know.

I found a pattern for a really cute Jolly Gingerbread doll cushion/pillow by Jenny Watson in a WYS book. The doll is knit in a worsted/aran weight yarn. I happen to have a gingerbread cookie color of wool in my stash and I think I am going to make one for our house for next Christmas. I even have some left-overs of the sock yarn for the scarf and hat. If I love it, I may make more to give as gifts. It needs to be big enough to be easily visible, though. I also have the knitted zoo animals pattern book and yarn sitting waiting for me to prioritize them. I think I need to finish my sweater and the pink mittens before I allow myself to cast on something fun like that.

I also have a sweater’s worth of Rowan Felted Tweed and a silk mohair yarn to make either a vest or a sweater. I want an orange garment to wear with my orange sueded boots – I can see my kids cringing! Ha! Ha! I like the Bolin Cardigan by Norah Gaughan that is being used as the Bang Out a Sweater pattern for the MDK month-long KAL. I’m just not sure that an orangey orange cardigan will be flattering on me. (Or will I look like a pumpkin?) I’ve swatched with two different colors of mohair …

On the left is the Felted Tweed (zinnia colorway) with a beige/tan lace-weight mohair and the right is with an orangey lace-weight mohair. Amazing difference, don’t you think? I like both combinations and the question remains, which one should I choose and for which garment? Since I can’t decide, I’m letting the yarn sit on the counter in my atelier until I can figure it out. I have the full sweater’s worth of mohair in the orange. I’d have to switch it for the tan if that’s the way I choose to go. The tan color makes the orange more subdued, for sure. Maybe I need to get my boots up next to the swatch and see what they look like together.

I’ve done a bit of work on my Jelly Roll Blanket and a little bit of the lace re-do on the Winter’s Finery Shawl. Nothing remarkable accomplished but I am trying to continue to make some progress each week. Eventually, all the projects will be completed. Right? I haven’t had the head space to work on my daughter’s fingerless mitts this week. This virus-thing has taken ahold of my brain. Lucky I only had to work one day and teach one day this week. Next week is going to be much busier with a MeAA board meeting and a MCSC business meeting to attend.

Off to move the laundry into the dryer and then it’s time to knit.

Gone knitting!

WIP Wednesday

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Queen Bee Knits

It’s a beautiful blue bird day here on the lake today. I have had a slow morning, a late wake-up after a middle of the night interruption by the smoke detector battery at 3:30am. I’ve been on meds for my sinus infection for 24 hours and hope to feel like a new woman by tomorrow. (No worries, right?)

I’ve been working away bit by bit on my Jelly Roll Blanket and yesterday came across a very pleasing combination of colors. I tried to take a photograph of them but it’s not coming out very true so you’ll have to just trust me. When I can knit outdoors again, maybe I can get a really good photo. Ha! I still have a basket and more of bits and bobs of fingering weight yarn scraps so I am planning to keep going. Maybe I’m half-way there? I knew this was going to be a long-term project.

I’ve picked up and am just finished grafting the seam on the headband I’m making for one of my daughter’s friends who is like another one of my kids. He’s an avid runner, even in the winter in New York City. For Christmas, I made Sheldon a pair of fingerless mitts for running in his signature shade of blue. I had an extra skein of the yarn and offered to make him a headband or hat. I decided on Petite Knits’ Weekend Headband which is a 1×1 rib, cast on with live stitches so that they can be grafted at the end. I made a mistake at the point of the cast on without realizing it until I was ready to graft in 1×1 rib and realized I had live stitches from the cast on that were all knit stitches. Hmm. What’s a knitter to do? I certainly wasn’t going to frog and begin again. So, my answer was to knit a round of stitches and graft them in regular Kitchener stitch. While the graft doesn’t look bad, it would look MUCH better in rib but since it’ll be on the inside of the headband, I think it’s passable. The headband is soaking now and will be blocked and sent off. I made the smaller size because he doesn’t have a big head. I hope it’ll work. I still have more yarn, just in case.

Meanwhile, my daughter has also asked for a new headband so once I’ve finished another project on the needles, I’ll have to find a pattern for hers. AND finish her sister’s fingerless mitts. Since I’ve been under the weather, I haven’t had the headspace to work on them.

My Winter’s Finery shawl has taken some backwards steps. I thought I had finished the lace through the last chart row and something didn’t line up. I frogged a few rows to see if I could fix it and just kept needing to go back again. So, finally, I decided just to go back to the start of the lace and start over and this time I won’t knit the lace while watching the final few episodes of Outlander. (If you haven’t watched Outlander, you’re really missing something quite wonderful. Part time-travel, part love story, part historical fiction, I have really enjoyed it.)

I started my “Bang Out a Sweater” sweater on January 31 and then it stalled. Seems I have all of my US 6 needles out in projects somewhere. I’m not sure how that could be but it seems to be true. SO … it’s sitting and waiting for me to finish my Winter’s Finery shawl or get the store for work tomorrow and buy an extra needle (or two). I can’t believe I have no US 6 needles that will work for this sweater. I will work on the shawl today … and if I can get close to 11 rows of lace knitted, I’ll finish the shawl first. If I don’t, I’ll buy new needles. Don’t tell my husband. Ha!

I have a sweater’s worth of so many yarns in my atelier. A rust-colored organic merino, a navy blue worsted wool, sport weight grey (with a red for some contrast/pattern), and an orange felted tweed and complimentary orange lace weight silk mohair. What do you think of an orange cardigan? I’m not getting a lot of knitting done this week because I don’t feel well, but I may have to cast on another something … the two hats for my client, the headband for my daughter. Something that doesn’t take too much headspace.

Gone knitting.

First and Second FO – 2024

Posted on January 6, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

We have an ice-covered lake now and this morning it was talking when I went out to take my daily photograph. It was cold this morning and we have a Nor’easter coming our way. I’m wearing my snowflake earrings in hopes that we have LOTS of snow!

I’ve finished my first and second project of 2024.

I participated in the Snow Matter What gnome KAL by Sarah Schira. She does a wonderful job and it’s not too much knitting on any particular day. Balanced with a fun story about the gnomes and a recipe or two, the gnome KAL is always a favorite end of the year. (It’s meant as a December palate cleanser, and this was to have been finished by Christmas Eve. Obviously, I’m a bit later than that … and it’s all good. I cleansed my palate after Christmas.)

This year there were two characters to create. The appetizer was the Sgnome-man which is a fun surprise departure from the normal characters. Beginning with several mystery pieces and then the body of the main character (or so I thought).

And once the sgnome-man was finished it was on to the main course. I applaud Sarah Schira for her creativity once again. I knew the white bit in the first picture was going to be a nose … and I was pretty sure I made a mistake when it was left on my desk after the sgnome-man was finished. Ha! Ha!

The embroidery on the two pieces helps them to know that they go together! I weighted one with rice and one with lavender and they’ll join their gnome friends. I’m collecting quite a fun little collection of gnomes – they make me smile.

I also finished my Sophie Scarf which I made from deeply stashed Lana Gatto Cashmere Light yarn. I quite literally have no idea where I got this yarn. I had three balls of gray (one light and two dark) and had them with my sport/dk weight yarns in my stash … it looks like they’re actually worsted weight. I used the majority of one of the darker balls to make the larger version of the scarf. It feels SO luxurious! It’s currently being soaked for blocking and I hope I like wearing it. It’ll be so nice against the skin and the color is very neutral – a really warm neck hugger.

I’m carrying ten more WIPs into 2024 with me. I am really going to make an attempt to finish them up before I start anything else. Next on my list of things to finish is my Nancy’s vest and the blue striped socks. I will also put back into rotation the pink embroidered mittens. I’d love to have them to wear (and if I like the Sophie’s Scarf, I may have to make another in pink to match the mittens. This time with fingering weight yarn, I think.)

We’ve been out for a late breakfast today and my dear hubby and the dog took the garbage to the dump and got a new bag of dog food so we are content to be home the rest of the day. I think I need to go find a cardigan to put on … it’s chilly in my studio now that the sun has gone behind the clouds.

Gone knitting.

Knitting on the Porch – Perfect Saturday

Posted on May 13, 2023 by Queen Bee Knits

We captured the first photograph of a hummingbird this morning. It’s become quite the thrill to watch the map tracking the hummers back to Maine from their winter home way down south. We’ve had the feeders up for about two weeks but until this week we hadn’t seen any birds. That all changed after I had cleaned and refilled the feeders this week. They’re back!

We spent the morning (and into the afternoon when the breeze kicked up) on the porch this morning. The sun was shining and the hummingbirds and loons were active finding food. I brought my knitting onto the porch and was working on my Romi MKAL “Falderal” shawl. I had gotten quite a bit of clue three finished when I realized that I hadn’t slipped a pair of stitches. Yesterday afternoon I frogged back 4 or 5 rows (at over 300 stitches per row) to where I had missed the slipped stitches, corrected my mistake and then worked on. This morning I finished clue 3.

Spoiler Alert! If you don’t want to see what it looks like at this point, don’t read any further.

I’ve chosen two colors of Practically Perfect sock by Emma’s Yarn for my shawl. I wanted to knit something in a purple because, honestly, I don’t have anything purple. The contrasting color is a gray that I’ve had in my stash for quite some time. The colorways are called February ’23 (purple) and After Dark (gray). It’s pretty contrast-y, perhaps more contrast-y than I had planned but I think I will like it well enough. I’m certainly not going to frog the whole project at this point.

You can see that the shawl will be soooo much more beautiful when it’s blocked and you can really see the lace between the “lattice” pattern sections. Clue 4 will be more lace but in the gray colorway. So far, this has been fun to knit and not difficult to follow. I’ll be taking this to Canada with me for Knit City Montreal next weekend and I think I will be able to keep up with the pattern when I’ve got lots of distraction. I’ll have another, more simple, mindless project, too just in case.

I bought yarn this week to make Anker’s Summer Shirt. I like wearing my hand knits and I like wearing Berroco Remix Light so … I bought the Remix Light in the “white” colorway and I’ll work on that next. I also like Tanis’ Rock it Tee and Yumi by Isabell Kraemer. There are several I could make with this yarn (or others that I can buy at my LYS.) Anyway, the plan is to make a tee next. I would like to finish my Three Seasons Cardigan before that but it seems silly as we are in warm weather now and I have plenty of time before I’ll be wearing the cardigan. So, tee is up next.

I have a pair of socks on the needles, too, of course. These are for my daughter, Libet. She chose the yarn from my stash when she was last here. I had to make a couple of pairs before I got to hers for gifts but I’m at it now. They should be ready for her birthday in July. Again, the yarn was stashed so I have no recollection of where it’s from but it’s really pretty and “dark” which is what she wanted.

I’m using Yankee Knitter’s sock pattern for the family #29 which is my favorite. I’ve knit so many socks from this pattern that I nearly have it memorized which makes it even better. I find I have to check on the number of stitches to pick up on the gusset and that’s about it when I’m knitting the fingering weight which is what I do most often.

We’ve been enjoying watching the birds at the bird feeder. We have a regular (pair?) of Pileated Woodpeckers and the regular host of Chickadees, Nuthatches, Titmice, Goldfinches, Purple Finches and, of course, all the woodpeckers from the Downy to the Pileated (and all the sizes in between.) We have a trio of Crows … they may be Ravens, it’s difficult to tell the difference IMHO. Anyway, they love to hang out ON the feeder and eat all of the suet. I was outside this morning to frighten them off and I happened to snap a few pictures of new blooms from our gardens …

The spring bulbs are beginning to fade and the early perennials are coming in: L to R we have peonies budding, creeping phlox in full bloom and my favorite bleeding heart. There are a TON of dandy lions all over the yard this year. I wasn’t going to do anything with them but when I’m out there it’s really tempting to pick those babies and start drying them out and soak them in oil to make something from weeds! Last year I made a salve and we’re still using it. It’s supposed to be good for inflammation, if I remember correctly. It is fun to collect plants from the yard that most consider to be worthless weeds (the birds and bugs love them this time of year!)

I felt well enough, finally, to do a little bit of cleaning up the garden beds. There’s a lot of work left to do. We have hired a young man (now I sound like an old lady!) to help with this this year because my hubby can’t lug all the bags or wheelbarrows full of mulch this year. They’ll help me edge all the beds again and we’ll be in good shape. I’ve been watching the hydrangeas as they leaf out … and the ones in front (or is the front really the back?) of the house, the side away from the lake, has hydrangeas that bloom on the old wood. I now know that I can cut these guys back in early spring because they’re HUGE!!!

I need to walk around to Helen’s garden in the back (or the front depending on your perspective) between our bedroom and the lake to see what they’re doing. We also have some poison ivy in this bed and a very obnoxious vine-y plant that I can’t seem to eradicate. We’ve used some natural vinegar solution in years past and I hope it will work this year. I don’t think we’ve really attacked this bed recently. It’s time!

This afternoon I’m heading to a new-to-me nursery with a friend. I’m told Fieldstone Gardens is gorgeous and it’s been on my list for awhile. I’m excited to see it. My eyes are open for another peony or two and perhaps a grass for in front of the porch … is that the back yard or the front? Ha! Ha!

Gone knitting.