theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Hello, everyone!  I know it’s been a while!

Many readers will know that I like to enter knitting into the Minnesota State Fair.  It makes attending the fair much more fun!  This year, someone mentioned that the Horticulture exhibits have a honey bee section where they accept entries on all things “bee” including something wearable.  My brain immediately went to some bee mitts that I had seen on Ravelry called Hey Bee-Otch.  Once I started looking at the pattern, I decided I didn’t want to knit mittens.  Decided on my own hat design after all.  I call my hat Queen Bee-nie.

The hat is a hodge podge of techniques: beads, intarsia, stranding, duplicate stitch, embroidery, twisted cord, and a pom for good measure!!  I colored the wings with food coloring.

You can see the hive overflowing with honey, bees buzzing around, and the queen’s crown on the right.  The other side of the hat is the same design.  The whole time I was knitting, I thought whatta mistake!  But the lil sucker is growing on me!

I am still working on my Pink Fizz, and might even get it done some day!

PS to Millie regarding Pink Fizz: I didn’t split the bottom ribbing because I converted it into a cardigan.   The split ribbed hem works better for a pullover.  That’s my logic anyway!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had trouble finding anything to go with my new Pagan Sky Cardigan.  I thought, NO PROBLEMO!  I figured I would simply go to my LYS and pick up a tonal gold yarn.  Nope.  I did end up ordering yarn from Simply Socks: Life in the Long Grass Silk Merino Sock, color Gorse.  Three skeins was enough to knit up a revised Tegna that I call Tegna Dreams.  As I have often done in the past, I used the lace border of BooKnits Sweet Dreams to create the picot points that to me resembled the colorwork of Pagan Sky:

The color isn’t a perfect match, but kind of blends in a non-matchy-matchy kind of way.

Added picots to the neck and sleeve bands:

The original Tegna starts at the hem and works bottom up.  I did a provisional cast on, worked down to the hem, activated the sts and then worked up.  Overall, pretty pleased!!

PS to Stashdragon — the butterflies are on the tablecloth.  I bought it from Amazon.