i got your back

Posted on annePosted in lace/shawls, projects, Uncategorized

ok, i can’t remember for the life of me which one of you wanted smutty pictures of unblocked bee fabric, and i can’t find the email, sooo

that’s the wrong side . . . and here’s some right-side action

(and i put another one or two at the end of the post for you too).

i feel REALLY foolish that i can’t track down that conversation in email. sigh—sorry!.

and while i was changing to a longer needle today, i took the opportunity to spread the shawl out as flat as i could get it for a couple of shots

and here’s one that’s a little closer

i had high hopes of finishing this weekend (ha! whatever was i thinking?), and although i made quite a bit of progress, i didn’t even get close to being done. or picking an edging (must do that next).

it’s that time of year when other demands intervene

like eating. our freezer stores of ready-made meals were getting low, so i spent the better part of saturday in the kitchen. and it was worth it

here we have (front row) black bean chili, and (back row) ribollita. mmm. made with fresh greens and herbs from this year’s garden, and the last of the tomatoes from last year.

i has planned to spend the whole of saturday afternoon spinning and bonding with my new wheels, but only got to sit down with them for a couple of hours last night. i spent all that time just with the reeves, finding i had to adjust a few things seemingly over and over. i also had to play with the tension a lot . . . it’s a new tensioning system for me and i’m not sensitive to its nuances yet. but i did spin some samples and found that, even in my stumbling on this unfamiliar wheel, i can spin a very fine and consistent yarn. i didn’t take a picture of the singles, but here’s one of the two ply

this is some superwash merino. i thought that i was way overspinning and then overplying it, but as it turns out, no . . .

it hangs nice and straight. if anything, it could have been more tightly spun AND plied. i need more time with it to get it right; and i’m left wanting to shut myself in and just spin for days to do just that.
i am happy with the resulting fineness of the yarn though—

(ok, so i don’t dust my mail scale—now you know my dark secret.)

60 yards from 0.3 ounce. that would be roughly 200 yards to an ounce; not bad, especially since those extra-fine laceweight yarns are harder for my eyes to work with lately. my preference is usually for something more in this range or a bit heavier.

but i do want to work on getting the twist right—i’m not so happy with it here. my goal for the immediate future is to spin this wool and some silk as a two-ply blend (one ply of each), and to do a batch of it on each wheel.

alright now, a few parting shots of bumpy/cushy bee back.

and what would the backshot be without a full frontal view?

62 thoughts on “i got your back”

  1. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the finish of the bee shawl. I can’t wait to see it blocked! Then I’m going to make me one…

  2. The Bee Shawl is so very pretty. I love seeing pictures of it. I’m currently knitting your Wing o the Moth shawl and enjoying every minute of it. Thank you so much for your very well written patterns!

  4. Lovely shots of the bee shawl! And your cooking is definitely appealing – I think you have a great idea there. I need to do some freezer cooking, I think.

  5. That’s some very nice spinning! And some yummy looking chili and ribollita… I love that you made it with the vegetables from your garden, it must be delicious.

  6. The bee shawl is divine, even in its unfinished, unblocked state. It’s sure to be spectactular when completed. When I grow up I want to spin like you! I just spun some yarn (or somethign that loosely resembles yarn) with a drop spindle and I’m addicted to the process. I’m shamelessly and aggressively coveting a wheel in my future life. Your soups look delicious.

  7. Your scarf is so refreshing. It looks like every young leaf on the bushes and trees I see on my walks. Can’t wait to see its finale.

  8. Thanks for the Bee Shawl pron. Can’t wait to see it all blocked. I know it will be wonderful.

    … and I agree the chili looks very good.

  9. Anne, I’ve been waiting for a shot like that flat shot of the bee shawl! Yay, I sure wasn’t disappointed. It’s a beauty. My brother was sitting with me while I was browsing through your blog, and he commented on how wonderful your chili looked, he wants you to send him a bowl full LOL!!

    I’m sure glad that you got some good quality time in spinning this weekend, you deserve it with how busy you’ve been as of late.

  10. I think that’s your most gorgeous project to date, and that’s saying a lot, as you have exquisite patterns! Can’t wait to see it blocked!

  11. Is it wrong that I feel a little indecent viewing your dirty bee pictures? Especially that last one. *fans self*

  12. The bee is looking grand! Now, can you come one over to my house and get some food stocked in the freezer? =) Everyone else can line up behind me.

  13. The bee is looking grand! Now, can you come one over to my house and get some food stocked in the freezer? =) Everyone else can line up behind me.

  14. I cannot wait for your bee shawl to be compleat and unfurl in all it’s green and winged glory. You know, the first thing I thought of when I saw you were designing a bee shawl was Paper Source’s bee paper.

  17. The bee is looking glorious. I can’t believe you have done so much with everything else you do! the food looks yummy and if you can spin that well when you are still getting to know the whee, I look forward to seeing what you can do when you and the wheel are good friends!

  18. WOW, that shawl is sure gorgeous. And freezer cooking is in my future, too (baby expected to arrive no later than end of August). However I inherited nearly all the frozen food from a neighbour who moved back to the states so currently my freezer is packed, as in can not even fit an ice cube tray packed…

    Can I ask how oyu design your shawls? I would love to design my own but I cant figure out how to do it. I know logically you start by picking out a motive and figuring out how many stitches you need to cast on for it and then you select the next motive, figure out how many repeats of the first you need to get the ammount of stitches needed to incorporate x repeats of motive number two, but that’s where I get stuck. I won’t even think about edgings because that’s just terrifying me right now.

  19. It was me! I wanted to see the bumpy bees! Thank you so much. I don’t think I’d block that shawl, personally. The bumps are just too neat!

  20. That’s looking great, both the shawl and the chili, mmmmm !!
    Don’t you dust your scale daily Anne ?
    I do ! Honestly 🙂

  21. Oh, I can’t wait until the bee shawl is ready and blocked. I, too, am going to snap up that pattern and buzz along on one of my own. (sorry, just couldn’t resist) Really, it’ gorgeous. Lovely work. I want one!

  22. I wish I could actually wait for all the pictures to load on dial up. MAybe tonight. The shawl has a real bee feel. Great texture.

  23. Bee blocked is going to be something else…it’s stunning! Your handspun yarn is pretty stunning as well!

  26. Your spinning is gorgeous and your bee shawl is SEXY. I am loving the bee bumps. Delicious!

    Can’t wait to see it all finished and edged and blocked. 🙂

  29. Full-frontal shawl pr0n! Hurrah! 😀

    Having a load of ready-made meals would certainly come in handy, that’s for certain. I normally just make myself a sandwich 10 minutes before I run out the door. Not much variety, but it gets the job done. Being able to grab some chili or soup would be nice sometimes, but my kitchen’s too small to go much in the way of large-scale cooking, so I expect I’ll be sticking with sandwiches for a good while yet. 🙂

  33. Divine Bee – oh how I love thee.
    Can’t wait to see the magical moment of blocking… AND to get my fingers on that pattern! Yeowza.

    Your spinning is awesome. My Reeves is a delicate thing to tension correctly too, but once I have it, it spins along lie a champ 😉

  34. Oh thank you for the unblocked shots. I love the feel of unblocked lace and I can just imagine from the pictures. What a gorgeous before and after pair of shots you will have. You can tell she is a beauty.

  35. You know. I love BEE.

    But…I’d love the recipes for those two concoctions!!! The photos are making me very very hungry
    🙂
    (((hugs)))

  38. Full frontal bees… ha! 😉 Wow, you’re really tearing right through that thing. Impressive! (Especially considering that you’re drafting the pattern as you go. That just amazes me. How do you not rip more than you knit?)

    And you know you’re one of my spinning heroes, right? When I start to spin just half as well as you do, I’m going to feel awfully chuffed. 😉

  40. Its going to be magnificent! I must have this –make one for myself:)

    I can be patient –really I can—Thank you for this!

  43. Ooh! The bees! The bees!

    I am impressed with your spinning. Even while using a new/different wheel you spun beautiful yarn.

  44. I want to cook like you, too.

    This is beginning to add up. I want to design, spin, and cook like you.
    Zowie.
    It sounds better if I finish the sentence “… because of your commitment to quality in everything you do.” Okay, now it sounds like I want to acheive quality and it’s not like I am a ‘wannabe’.

  45. You have time to make chili and freeze it for yourself? Where DO you find the time? I am looking forward to Bee Shawl blockage–what?! Have you been thinking about what’s next?

  46. i love those bumpy bee shawl shots! it’s so much fun to see the way a lace pattern can transform yarn into something three dimensional even in an essentially flat object.

  47. The bee shawl is amazing! It really looks like an organized swarm of bees in the spread out, slightly flattened shot. Wow!

    If you can also please add me to the list of folks who would like to you to stop by my house and cook, I’d appreciate it. Don’t forget to bring ingredients from your garden!

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