On knitting 50 life-sized bees

Hannah Haworth found herself in the enviable position of having to knit 50 life-sized bees, which she did, and celebrated their completion with detailed notes and lovely photos.

Remember when I mentioned that I had to knit 50 life size bees? Well I finally finished them!! woop woop! I may have gotten a little obsessive with the detail, but I kinda always do. It was weird for me doing such a small scale project after the huge pieces Im used to making, but I enjoyed it a lot, I think I learned quite a bit from it.
These bees are made form 100% baby merino wool from Malabrigo. I especially love the way they dye their colours, they are pretty much iridescent
Making the bees was certainly a process. I began by knitting the body from the back to the head, then I picked up stitches to make the wings which I used a simple lace stitch pattern for.

bzzzzz (via Making Light)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Delightful Creatures • happy mutants • insects • knitting • maker

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

bcsizemo

They remind me of carpenter bees….and they are just starting to come out where I live. I hate them almost as much as they hate me.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Carpenter bees? They’re so fat and have such tiny wings, you’d have to be restrained for one to land on you.
- Donald Petersen
  
  I often encountered a carpenter bee near a telephone pole at the corner of my front yard when I was a kid. Though it was big, black, scary, and sounded like a B-17 bomber when it buzzed over my head, it was never remotely aggressive (though seemed inquisitive), and I don’t remember ever encountering more than one at a time.
  
  These knitted ones are amazing, though I can’t imagine how hard they must have been to make. My fingers cramp and my eyes water just thinking about doing such fine work.
gws

I know nothing about knitting, but these bees look really good. The main picture brings back sad memories of my parents’ kitchen floor blanketed with dead bees, the result of a bee-handling mistake I will not make again. Never keep bees indoors, even if you’re pretty sure they can’t get out of the box.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000262830948 Sherry Weller

Can us knitters get a bee pattern??
- thezamiel
  
  Pattern here! Found through the ravelry Ravel it! Button http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/honeybee-2
http://www.megatoothpastemammals.com Carpeteria

These look great, but I mostly love the detail that they mysteriously “had” to be made, as if some cosmic force deemed them necessary to exist beyond the control of the creator herself.

THESE BEES MUST BE KNITTED IN THE SUM OF FIFTY; NO MORE, NO LESS.
http://www.facebook.com/terry.tinker59 Terry Tinker

Love them, love bees in general. I know how much work this was, as I’m a knitter too. Were they made for a specific project?
http://twitter.com/yogahz yogahz

From the Ravelry project page:

Life size honeybee, originally commissioned as a set of 50 for the Union Gallery in Edinburgh. 40% of each pattern sale will be donated to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust in the UK.
TimmoWarner

Knot the bees!