Then last night I broke out the black Blue Face Leicester (say that three times quickly). It's really a gray-brown, but I'm tickled no matter what the color. Much nicer:
I'm not getting unalloyed help from the residents of the house, though. I had to chase him away and finally put the fiber up where he couldn't get it, since even sacrificing a little bit to him didn't help. He also tries to bite the yarn before it winds onto the bobbin. I ordered the final bits for my wheel, plus some fiber. I know, I know, but I'm almost out of what I got at class.
Oh, on the bee front, I think I'm making progress. That hive with the wonky comb was really preying on my mind. Then a friend from the bee group called and told me that she thought it would be easiest to get the queen and put a divider between some straight comb and the crooked comb. Keep the queen on the straight comb, which is in short supply in that hive, and the workers would raise the remaining brood in the wonky comb and then use it for honey storage, while I could concentrate on setting them up to keep straight comb coming in the other part of the hive. The queen isn't one to run around too much, so if she were happy where she was, it would work fine.
The day I planned to work on it, I'd visited two other hives and hadn't seen those queens at all. Some days I can, some I can't. Thing 2 was being a fantastic help by keeping the smoker lit. I stink at that. But she couldn't see the queen either. Then I called in my reinforcements - Thing 1. Although she grumbled, she put on the veil and gloves, walked over to the hive, looked as I raised up a bar of comb, and said, "There she is." Sure enough, there she was. So we moved her over and sealed off the other side. Fingers crossed! I'm not going to check until all the brood in the back should have hatched out, though, so I need to doublecheck how long that should be.
Meanwhile, I have some work to do both for work and on some, well, knitting.
9 comments:
Check out the wild eyes! Hee! Calvin plays with my feet as I'm treadling but leaves the fiber alone. He's a wierd cat.
LOVE that kitty pic! Adorable!
Wow that's a huge improvement.
Your kitty is such a cutie.
Oh, it's so cool! And I am SOOOO jealous!!! (like I'd have time to spin...someday when I have grandkids, maybe. lol!)
Well done with the spinning. Are you planning to knit your yarn? Are you going to knit singles?
Your cat looks hilarious! Lovin that yarn perhaps a bit too much.
It's coming along so nicely - I finally had a chance to sit at my wheel this week, and was surprised at how much I remembered. :0)
Wow. Your spinning looks great. And your cat looks psycho - that's awesome.
I bought some Blue Face Leicester yarn a few years ago from the Fleece Artist that just happened to be blue, so I thought there must also be Green Face Leicester and Pink Face Leicester, and so on. {sigh}
Good luck with the wonky bees!
It is fun comparing to compare the spinning from one spool to the next when you first start. The difference in improvement is amazing! I found I haven't been able to knit anything with my first few spools because form the same roving because they are all so different.
Love the kitty picture!
Your improvement in spinning is amazing! I'm glad to be able to watch your progress, since I've been wanting to spin but barely have time to knit these days. The kitty picture almost made me fall off my chair laughing. I can see our guys behaving similarly.
I love reading your bee adventures!
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