Queen Bee Knits

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

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Posted on September 5, 2026 by Queen Bee Knits

It’s a bit cloudy and a bit chilly this Saturday morning! I am happy for both. We desperately need the rain here in Maine as most of our state is under drought conditions. We have a well so it’s a serious issue that needs our awareness. We have stopped watering the gardens and have put our water conservation efforts in the house on high! We’ll be fine. Hopefully.

This week I got several lovely, thoughtful comments on several posts from a “man” named John Smith. I almost always check profiles before accepting comments on my blog and I am grateful that I stopped to look … it’s an AI platform and, I suspect, an AI response which, upon my review was more a summary of what I posted than a thoughtful human response. I won’t approve them and I may choose to mark them as spam. Progress is a double-edged sword.

I’ve had a busy and quite wonderful week! I started out the week with meetings, meetings, meetings and then finished the week with my teaching gig. In between was a lot of house cleaning, knitting, some stitching and even some baking. I was able to chat with almost all of our kids and am looking forward to seeing some of them soon.

I have a FO! One of my wonderful students pointed out Summer Lee’s new sock pattern to me and I loved it so much I immediately went to my stash to find some yarn to cast on. I have loved knitting these socks (despite the mistake I made on the first round of the first sock.) I am wearing them today because without the sun it’s a bit chilly and my feet are very happy. I knit these in some stashed Socks Yeah! yarn in a pale pink colorway. The lace repeat was easy enough to memorize and I am tickled with the result. I really like the shorter leg length even if that leaves me with more bits and bobs of fingering weight yarn.

Once I finished my Reverie Socks, I immediately went back to my stash to find some more yarn. I forgot that I bought this self-striping yarn that is packaged in two half-skeins so that the socks are identical. My husband had already gone to bed when I started caking up the first hank and (despite the fact that he can’t ever hear me) he complained that the swift was too noisy. I’ll wind the second bit today. LOL. I love a good self-striping sock. I think I have decided that I’d like to find a contrasting color to make my heels and toes … I’ll search for that today. Heaven knows I have quite a collection of bits and bobs. I’m using the Yankee Knitter and Summer Lee and maybe other patterns that I’ve used before. I did about an inch of 1×1 rib and then I’m just going to knit the leg. I’ll do a heel flap and gusset in a solid colored yarn and then knit the foot down to the toe and change the toe color, too. I could use more than one color, too … thoughts? I’ll show you what I choose!

I had to frog back my Jaunty this morning … only about an inch but I found a spot where I switched my knit belows and purls and the pattern looked off. It was almost something I could ignore but I decided it was only a few rows back and I decided to fix it instead. I’ve now got the stitches back on the needles and I’m ready to move on down the last part of the project.

I’ve really enjoyed knitting Jaunty! I am loving the yarn and the stitch pattern. I chose to knit with Ewetopia Helix DK in two different colorways because I thought I loved the purple one best and we only had two hanks in the store. BUT the blue colorway had enough purple that I thought it would also work and give me enough yarn to make the large sized Jaunty. I was right and I am very happy with the whole project. Well, not so much with the silly mistake I made but it’s fixed now and I can move on toward the end of the project. Maybe I’ll have another FO by the end of this coming week (or sooner). (And please note the cute sock on my foot!)

So, I know have my Make Mine a Double to figure out and I have had several helpful comments on that. Thank you. I think I’m going to rewind the hank and wind off the chocolate (dark) brown color and use the blue/brown/taupe medium colors on the first and then the second sleeve, breaking the yarn in between. It’s not my first preference, I’d love the yarn to be all one thread BUT I do think that the sleeves need to have some consistent color and I think that’s the right thing to do. I’ll finish them both with the lighter beige into the creamy color so they’ll “match” the body of the sweater (sort of). I am almost to the ribbing … there’s two inches of it … but I have to try it on again to see if it’s long enough to wear with my jeans. No midriff revelations at my age! Ha! Ha!

Early next week I’ll be seeing my daughter and she can try on her Levitate Wrap cardigan to make sure it’s going to be a good fit. I didn’t have her in my house to measure so we have guessed, albeit an educated guess, at her sizing. The sweater is supposed to be a boxy fit and I am on gauge so I am hopeful that it’ll be a go. I hope to make some good progress on that next week after the fitting. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I’ve read two good books about relationships that I thought I’d suggest here. The first one is Ann Patchett’s Whistler. I read this for my summer book club. We all loved it and I think I may have to re-read it because after our discussion I may be able to notice more details. Ann Patchett is an incredible writer and it’s a wonderful read. The second book was initially the book club book but was changed (to Whistler) and I missed the memo because I missed the first book club meeting. Anyway, the second book is Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Both books are pictured below. Crossing to Safety is an older book but I still enjoyed it .. even with a brief break to read the correct book club book, I wanted to go back and finish it. And now I’m going back to the first book club book which was Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I took a break from Braiding Sweetgrass to read Crossing to Safety … well, you get the idea. I have to finish Braiding Sweetgrass, too. Worthy of a read. I loved learning more about the cultural beliefs of the native Americans, in particular.

Ok, it’s Saturday and I have a lot of ideas on what I want to do today beginning with lunch with my favorite hubby. We’re heading into town to try a new Chinese restaurant that’s not far from work (and there’s another few restaurants we need to try, too.) Neither of us loves to leave “campus” when we’re home on the weekends so this is a stretch but we also realize we don’t get out much. We’re trying.

Gone knitting.

Free Fishing Weekend

Posted on February 17, 2024 by Queen Bee Knits

Today is the start of Maine’s Free Fishing weekend apparently. Our lake is covered in people ice fishing. There’s one group that was out in front of our boat house last night when I got home from work and they were back at 5:45 this morning. Typically, I’d welcome people to enjoy our lake but this morning I was upset at being awakened by their noisy vehicles and augers so early. The lake is nearly 2 miles wide where we are and 7-ish miles long … dontcha think you could find a special spot that isn’t right smack dab in my front yard? They’ve got traps, at least a dozen, on the ice in front of our house when the next mile plus of shoreline is occupied by summer-only residents.

But I haven’t come here to gripe (much) and I wanted to share with you a couple of knitting projects that I’m enjoying today – and share a yarn shop story, too.

I’m half-way through the Hermione’s Everyday Socks that I’m knitting. I am loving this pattern and can’t believe it’s taken me so long to try something new. It truly has been a while that I’ve been stuck in a rut of knitting my favorite sock pattern, Yankee Knitter’s Classic Sock #29. BUT this one was pointed out to me by my friend/co-worker/knitting conspirator friend, Glenda. She was wearing a pair with her Nancy’s vest a week ago and I thought I’d give it a try. Just so happens I had finished a pair of socks and needed to cast on another. (Needed. See that?!) Anywho … I love the Hermione’s sock and will wind and cast on the second sock today.

Meanwhile, my other friend/co-worker/knitting conspirator, Carol, showed me a pattern on Thursday that she was going to try and I couldn’t resist. The pattern is called Luggage Finders and it’s a free pattern on Ravelry by Skacel. Designed by Kathy Sasser, this is a collection of four little tags that you can add to your suitcase to make it more easy to identify when you’re traveling. I’m traveling later this month and I can’t wait to put my Maine Lobstah yarn name tag on my suitcase.

These two women get me into so much trouble! I really should be finishing older projects from their spots in time out but instead I’m casting on new projects, too. Ha! Ha! The rest will wait a day or two while I play, right? (Kind of like the dust in my house.)

Some of my Friday afternoon class is knitting a Maine Mitten project in class to try something new. They’re using the pattern that we all got from the Maine Yarn Cruise this past year from Jagger Spun, the Original Maine Flag Mittens. I had knitted a pair and gifted them in our Christmas Yankee Swap and that started a family squabble and quite a competition. So, I suggested we try a KAL with the pattern. It’s a fun pattern for a basic mitten and a charted duplicate stitch pattern to add the original Maine flag pine tree and star.

I have several items that I’ve knitted and worn once or not at all (these were one of them) and I really need to send them all off to good homes where they’ll be appreciated. I’m going to get some photos and put them out there with a price on Facebook, I guess, and see what happens. I sold one pair of Malabrigo Rasta mittens to a sweet friend in Ohio. That feels good. I just need to take the time. BUT for now, I’m going to get dressed, throw in a load of laundry and mix up some bread dough so I can bake tomorrow. The hubby and I are heading to town to see the new exhibits at Colby’s Art Museum and maybe we’ll stop somewhere for a bite to eat after that.

Gone knitting … well, you know what I mean. Thanks for being here, friends.

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.