Etsy Beetsy

[liralen]

I'm kind of peering at Etsy and being fascinated. Especially with the stashes of hand spun I have at home, that it would be cool to find a home for. Hm. I have to admit that I spin much faster than I knit, and I have three or four bunches of hand spun laceweight wools from back when it was too hard to buy commercial lace weight yarns. I know

Comments

[beckyb]

I'm loving hearing about your bees! It's also cool to think about how we keep learning since I'm supposed to be teaching people how to become lifelong learners-- it's really about figuring out how to be your own teacher. Thanks for your datapoint!

[liralen]

You're very, very welcome!

Lifelong learners. How very cool. :-)

[greenlion]

Laceweight, huh? What quantities are you talking about?

[liralen]

*grin*

Hm. One and a half miles of two-ply in about two ounces of superfine merino that I'm still bemused about as I actually *lost* the end of a small batch of the singles when I was plying, it was that thin. I'm still undecided about actually selling that one, as it still makes me think about what I *can* do.

Two or three skiens of a sparkly autumn multicolor. It's not quite as insane as the white, more about the weight of KnitPicks Shadow. Each skein is probably around 2 ounces and all together it's likely enough to make a good, square Shetland style shawl.

Miscellanious white laceweights, that are all a little different, some from CVM, some from other sheep, some fuzzier, some smoother. Each about 2 ounces. I think there are three or four of those that are probably usable (i.e. without floating strands where they broke). Likely very dyeable.

I think one 2 ounce skein of grape laceweight with sparkly bits that might make something small.

And when I say laceweight, I'm mostly talking at least 200 yard per ounce range

[foomf]

Aww, grooming bees!

OK, here's a flashback.

I was four years old. We were living at a small house near where my Grandma's boarding house had been - I think she had sold it and bought the Shalimar Cafe by then - and I was playing in the yard with my stepsisters.

There were tons of dandelions and bees playing with them.
And one of them landed on my hand.

I froze, and just watched the bee. Her pollen-sacks were incredibly overloaded, and she groomed for about ten seconds, then emptied out some of the pollen onto my fingernail, then took off again.

Bees are beautiful, all bronze and brass armor and stained-glass wings and polished black landing gear.

[liralen]

Yum.

Thanks for lending me that memory. Very, very cool.

[jilara]

Here's another story for you. I was "the girl who picks up bees" in grade school. I started with bumblebees, because I was fascinated with them, and I was always picking up bugs to watch them. They'd sit on my finger and taste me. So it just seemed fairly normal when, later, I'd have a bee light on me and I'd gently disengage her from my hair or clothing, so she didn't get crushed or tangled. I was always fascinated with ants, and kept innumerable ant colonies, so moving to honeybees seemed kind of a natural progression.

[liralen]

Very cool.

[sjgross]

The bee class sounds really interesting. I'm really afraid of them in practice, but I like understanding their habits.

I bet that lace weight wool is lovely. I'm still working with much cheaper and plainer yarns but maybe someday I'll be good enough at yarnwork to use the "good stuff"

I've been crocheting, but just a couple days ago I pulled out my knitting rakes and I'm going to see if I can remember how to use them.

[liralen]

Cool!