This weekend was dominated by holiday baking, some pretty pretty snow, a nightmarish trip to the grocery store and dress shopping, so very little knitting took place.

I did work on some new spinning for a little bit…

…and while I did have some concerns about spinning superwash, since I’ve never done it before, it’s working out quite well.

Ten ounces of pretty pretty Lorna’s Laces top will keep me busy for a while.

While we didn’t get as much snow as they forcasted, Madori still enjoyed playing in the few inches that we did get.

She hates her sweater.

But I love it.

And I have opposable thumbs, so I win!

What do you do when your whole life blows up in your face, when everything you had planned falls apart?

Well, you find ways to laugh, you focus on the positive, you pick up the pieces and you move on. And you try to find ways to cope with massive amounts of nervous energy.

In my case, much crafting has ensued in the past few days since everything I believed in for my life fell apart. There’s been much knitting , less spinning and actually a whole lot of sewing, which does take some explaination.

I decided that, if I was going to knit lace out of some very special handspun, I’d better quote a fabulous member of my SnB and “Go big or go home.” So, I placed my very first Knitpicks order, which included blocking wires and foam tiles. Well, everything is shipping seperately, which is perplexing on its own, so the wires aren’t here yet, but the tiles showed up.

Yeah, they showed up just like that: all naked in a box. So, of course, they need a bag to be stored in. Out came the sewing machine and out came this:

Silk brocade, some old stashed suiting material, black thread and a ribbon: Voila!

Well, once I had the machine out, I just couldn’t stop! I took a look at my stash of fat quarters and decided it was time to bust out a whole bunch of knitting and spinning project bags to further my goal of eliminating plastic from my knitting basket.

Such cute patterned fabric, such instant gratification. Sure the seams are a little wonky on a couple, but I don’t claim to be a seamstress. These just make me so happy!

On the knitting front, I cast on, cast off and wove end in on the shetland triangle all within a matter of days. I haven’t had a project go that fast in a long, long time, and this was perfect for my frame of mind this week.

A proper posting when those wires finally show up and this lovely gets a proper block.

On a personal note, I’m actually doing quite well despite all the ick I’ve had happen very recently, far better than I should probably be. And thank goodness for friends and hobbies; they make the worst things so much easier to cope with.

Another week, another finished yarn!

This one was for the Ravelry Spindlers July challenge, which was to spin a “Renaissance” inspired yarn. You could interpret Renaissance however you wanted, so I went with this:

This was my first challenge, and it was a fun one to do. So many inspiring artworks from that era, but this one called to me because it matched a braid in the stash.

This is 100 percent merino, 4 ounces, hand-dyed by FiberFancy. This is the first of the fiber from FiberFancy that I’ve spun up, and it was very nice to work with. Merino is definitly growing on me as well. At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of merino, but I’m having an easier time with it lately, and I love what a soft and squishy handspun it makes.

I wound up with a little more than 208 yards of Navajo plied yarn, in the neighborhood of aran weight, spun on Little Joe and plied on Monster. I handsewed in about 160 2mm unakite beads and while the final product is just what I was going for, my methodology was…somewhat lacking. Next time I do a beaded yarn with beads this tiny, I’ll try thread plying with them prestrung on the thread. Sewing them on was tedious to say the very least.

I actually have, wonder of wonders, a knitting FO to show soon! Very exciting!

For now, though, I’ll leave you with a little wet mutt.

These beautiful fibers are by FiberFancy, Shunklies and DragonFibers. Photography by yours truly.

Full details available on Ravelry.

Not all of the Big Changes at Casa de Weasel have been good changes. Some have been scary, some have been stressful. And some have been sad.

It wasn’t all completely unexpected. They have huge spirits, but their little bodies…they just have a hard time keeping up.

Whyatt couldn’t overcome ADV, which is a truly horrible disease. Otto and Buddha couldn’t overcome adrenal disease; their age and the severity of their disease made it inoperable.

And Lea…she truly broke my heart. Not one symptom. Nothing I could see. Just days after Whyatt, I lost her too.

So now, my little crew is down to three: Leroy, Spazz and Miranda. It’s almost surreal. Spazz seems sad. Miranda is her sweet silly little self. And Leroy is doing ok, despite the fact that he’s starting to show adrenal symptoms again; at four years post-op, I’m actually a little surprised how well he’s done. He’s been healthy for a long time, but he’s eight years old now.

It’s all just a matter of time.

I’ll have more yarny posts this week, but I needed to give my babies their moment. And I needed to show off this photo of my three little loves and their very sweet, very sleepy group hug.

So, who’s it gonna be?

You?

Or will it be you??

Which bud will give me my first pretty little gardenia? I guess only time will tell…but I’m really enjoying my new houseplants. One of the beautiful things about living in an old house are those wonderful old-style design features, like ripply plaster walls and decorative molding on each window and doorway…and deep windowsills just waiting to be filled with foliage.

Well, are you?

How about now?

So, it’s underplied.

And possibly overspun.

But it’s lovely nonetheless.

The colors are much more muted when plied, a good lesson in color for all my future spinning, and it reminds me of a breezy summer sky.

I wound up with three skeins, for a total of 769.5 yards–a fantastic amount of yardage–at 36 WPI, making this a nice 2-ply lace weight. I’m thinking its going to end up as a Waves of Grain scarf; I have some seed beads that will match really nicely.

I decided to skein and wash my first spinning, the Mocha Latte merino from Fiber Monster, and boy what a difference that made! It looks so much better!

The SnBers, in their ever infinite wisdom, said that I should do something with this. So I did. Behold my fiber art!

It looks so amazing on my living room wall! Fits right in with cozy chair and my vase of knitting needles!

Could an installation be in my future? Only time will tell!

I took this….

….and turned it into this…. 

….and I’m deleriously happy with it. I totally had an “oh, crap!” moment, as in  ”oh, crap, this looks so awesome now that it’s off the spindle I can’t even believe it!” And it isn’t even washed yet! It’s going to get even better!

And check this out:

How awesome is that?

I know…so awesome. It’s 36 wpi, I have 315 yards on the niddy noddy and I still have two partial bobbins and one full bobbin to ply.

BTW, I got my awesome walnut, 1.5 yard niddy noddy from The Spinners Emporium on Etsy. The shipping was so fast, and the quality is really great. I’d highly recommend them, and I’m thinking a mini niddy might be somewhere in my future as well…

I have no socks on the needles right now (except for the Regal Afghan Slippers and those SWTC Oasis socks, which…let’s be honest…may never be finished).

It’s so weird. I almost always have a sock going, but I’m exercising a surprising bit of project monogamy with the Apres Surf Hoodie. I’m really excited about this sweater.

The yarn is an absolute dream (How can you go wrong with cotton, angora, polymide, rayon AND cashmere? That’s right….you can’t!). The fit is going to be phenomenal. The lace is tedious, but well worth it. And the needles….oh, the needles.

Addi, my darling, my sweet I loved you before. But I love you even more now that you are designed for lace. I don’t even mind that the brass finish is sticker than the nickel plating. Don’t mind it a bit.

Both the back and front are knit. I’m working both sleeves at once, and so far I’m finding it was a good choice. They’re perfectly identical. I’ll have a sweater in no time! Score!

Not much got knit on the hoodie this weekend though. Despite catching the icky stomach bug that’s plagued the office for the past two weeks (and it is no fun, let me tell you), I joined Mr. Blue-eyes for a trip to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam, New York, that is. And why did I suffer nausea, heartburn and several long swigs off a big ‘ole bottle of Pepto?

For this priceless moment right here:

Let’s hear it. The collective, “awwwwww…..”

I know, I could have done with less lens flare. But face it: It doesn’t get much cuter than that.

So, we drove to Amsterdam to pick up a pooch from the lovely ladies of the Jackson’s Legacy Bully Breed Rescue, even though the little dude isn’t a bully breed. (Far from it, the little guy’s a lab/border collie/Aussie shepherd mix.) And the sweet-faced little pisser moved into the big city with Mr. Blue-eyes this weekend. And so far, the new roomies are getting along OK.

They still have some differences of opinion to sort out, though. Mr. Blue-eyes prefers no chew marks on his new Ikea furniture; I have to say I’m with him on that one. Poochie-kins believes he should be able to leave puddles of piddle on the hardwood floors; Mr. Blue-eyes respectfully disagrees.

And, what does Madori think?

The past few days have been c-r-a-z-y!

Last Saturday, ‘Lil Bro and I moved Mr. Blue-eyes into his new pad. It’s an absolutely beautiful apartment in a building I have loved since I was a small child. One problem: Mr. Blue-eyes has lived as a nomadic batchelor for a very, very long time…and thusly has, well had, no furniture. I’ve never known anyone else who could pack their entire apartment in exactly four hours. Which, in this situation turned out to be a very good thing, since he didn’t get back from Los Angeles until late Friday night. But this new apartment is empty…or was…but I digress.

Last weekend was also Mr. Blue-eye’s birthday, and coincidently his folks were in New York for the U.S. Open. So dinner at Max Fish (awesome seared yellow fin!) was in order, as were gifts of new artwork for empty, 20-foot-high apartment walls.

Monday was a relaxing Labor Day picnic down on the farm with my family, full of laughs, card games, horseback riding, good food and good beer (not necessarily in that order).

Tuesday was back to work after a week of vacation (in which much knitting ensued), and yesterday was a 5 hour, post-work excursion in a UHaul van here…which ultimately resulted in a soon-to-be-assembled-and-almost-fully-furnished-apartment. Were talking a couch, a chair, a footstool, a dining room table,  a TV stand, a sofa table, and a big-ass mirror…soon to be joined by some leather dining room chairs that were out of stock.

I’d like to say the place is now furnished and awesome, but that’d be a lie. Even the couch has to be assembled…so basically the place is full of cardboard boxes. Can we say, “project”?

While it’s been hectic and labor intensive, it’s been awesome to have so much time with Mr. Blue-eyes. He doesn’t have travel for work again for two whole weeks, and I’m determined to see him as much as possible. Luckily, he feels the same way.

On the knitting front, much has been accomplished. My new adventures in thrumming are going very well… 

…and I totally recommend Fiber Monster for, well, fiber. Her batts really are as beautiful as those photographs. The inside of this mitt is a thing of beauty as well.

 Sweet. The second mitt just needs a thumb, and then the first of the thrumming will be complete.

I also whipped out the first Everlasting Bagstopper….

….and the second everlasting bagstopper.

 I really love the handles on this bad boy too.

Both bagstoppers have already made it to the grocery store and the farmstand, with much success and appreciation.

Finally, I whipped out the second of these bad ass babes in one super-productive knitting day while on vacation.

Wah-bam! How freaking awesome are these?!?! I’m really pleased with the final socks. The short-row heel technique used in this pattern (Ann Budd’s toe-up recipe from Interweave) makes a nice, solid knit with no holes (yay!), but it gave me some trouble on the second sock…but not the first…some synapses were’nt firing in unison, obviously. I couldn’t be happier with these, though, and Big Sis is going to love them.

I just have to force myself to wait until Xmas to give them to her….that may actually prove difficult…