Newest dry fish

Here's the promised pictures of the dry Chubbles I made. Swim free little man! Hope the Rainbow Pond is treating you well.

As a fish-lover, I understand alot of people don't understand the attraction or love for fish. I dare anyone to setup a tank, pick out a fish of any sort, take care of it, and not love it. Goldfish in particular have such a presence about them. They are truly puppies with fins! Lol.

I am nearly halfway done with the Madeira scarf and will post some pictures tomorrow. I am having that "middle of the project" boredom...ugh! I am sooooo ready for something different. There are about three other projects I have to finish before the "different" can begin, however. *Chuckle* No rest for the wicked I guess!

I've got some neato yarn that will make a cool really terrific hat. It's a definate tweed and is intended for this particular project:

http://www.nakedknitters.com/patterns/JustlikeaPeasantCap.pdf

It's a terrific little deconstruction of this hat that costs a whopping $165!!! Oh wait...it's on sale now for $80! I guess cashmere has gone up in price a little! The yarn I've picked is all wool baby! I really want some crisp lines and stitches! It seems all the other knitters are using wool as well. I may make two and try the second one in cashmere.

Here it is:

https://secure.stewartbrown.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=40600

I gotta say this gal looks a little pissed to be wearing it...lol.

Back from the land of broken computers.

Ugh! Three weeks...THREE weeks without a computer. What could be worse than that? The Hubs found out he doesn't like to share his computer all the much...lol. The other bad thing: The whole motherboard had to be replaced because the wireless card is integrated into it and unavailable for repair! Can you believe that? Integrated motherboards are no bueno.



Having said all that, it's good to be back. The Hub's laptop is a standard size and I, of course, have to be uber-cool and have a laptop with the full size keyboard. After using his for three weeks you should see the typos I am accumulating as a result of misplaced fingers. Haha!

I did stay busy with a private comission and another fish hat for a photo contest so the fingers stayed busy. Oddly enough, the house stayed cleaner too. Hmmm! Do I waste time on the internet?

Ooh, I also found $50 last week cleaning out my purses. How cool is that? I would have been jazzed over $5 or $10 but $50?! Oh ya! It was promptly spent at my favorite local yarn store called, "Lamb's Ear" that's owned by a friend of mine here in good old Tacoma, Washington.

I've been wanting to try my hand at lace-weight work and I really like the feel of it but picked a less-than par free pattern. It's going to be really pretty when it's done but there are a couple of errors in the pattern that I am sorting out:

http://www.straw.com/cpy/lacescrf.htm



I attemtped this one but am pretty certain I needed to double the yarn for the proper affect. LOVE this pattern:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer07/PATTwisp.html

I love how versatile it is. Come one, sometimes you feel like a scarf, sometimes you feel like a hood! How cool is that?




This is also a must-knit for this year. Having a bad hair day? Why not knit up some new hair! The pattern can be found right here:

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATThallowig.html


I am loving the kid merino. On a side note, I really wanted to buy some new bamboo needles but blew the budget on yarn. I read somewhere that you can take sandpaper to metal needles to rough them up and get a nice grip on slippery yarns. Well, it works! The needles look like crap but they have a tooth to them that's perfect for this particular project.



I also finished a private comission. I quoted a price and the gal overpaid (which I didn't know about until after I mailed the little guy to her) and I had a couple of, "I'm freaking that she won't like it" moments. When you cross over a certain price range, I feel, it raises expectations and I try REALLY hard to exceed all my client's desires. This was a replica of a fish she lost in November and he was quite a special guy. I really wanted to get him right. I wanted to do something else (I dunno what) when I found out she more than doubled what I priced her at. She sent me the nicest e-mail after receiving him and just loves him! It made my whole week when she told me the eyes were just like the real-life fish's. I literally choked up! I had him all done and ready to ship but started fiddling with him and wound up spending another day and a half adjusting little things. It was more than usual work but totally worth it. Considering she deliberately overpaid (wants to keep me happy for several more fish in the future...lol) I am happy I am anal about details! It's not about the money....it's about getting it right.

Here he is:





WHOOPS. Pictures are on the Hubs computer...hahahahahah! What a dork. I'll get them moved over and post later. Sheesh!

Must-Knits for 2009

If I can figure out how to have a list on the side of the page for this list I will move stuff over there.

One of my resolutions for this year, besides returning to adoptions of ThreadGoodes, is to venture into some new knits. Knits that will cause some cussing, crying, and general stretching of my meager skills. How else does one improve unless they are subjected to trials?

First on my list is this GORGEOUS-YUMMY-MUST-HAVE coat:

http://twistcollective.com/2008/winter/magazinepage_06.php

Of course, being a bit of an odd ball, these little darlings will be on my list as well:

Adorable little nosewarmers! Who'da thunk it? Something to put on when I run on those frosty mornings and make me unforgettable to the passing drivers (I worry about getting run over).

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter02/PATTnosewarmer.html

Everyone needs something to keep their feet warm and why not Musk Oxen?

Found in Knitty's winter issue 08

One other resolution is the cessation of an on-going addiction that I have. Yep folks! This blogger has a not-so-secret weakness that must be dealt with! I'm calling it out right now in order to make myself accountable...lol. I LOVE Goldfish! I love them, their little faces, their shameless begging, their fins, and their tank-care. They are much smarter than people give them credit for and being considered by the ignorant majority to be "expendable pets" it's my mission to take care of all of God's creatures...even the little Goldfish!

Of course, there have been new additions and as it stands right now, I'll have three tanks setup unless I can finagle that 300 gallon I've been drooling over on Craigslist. I would/could settle for a 150 gallon and that would put me at two tanks in the house and a couch in the family room.

The first of the four newbs (yep...this is a record for me) is Gnocchi. I have three Pearlscales already and really wasn't looking for another one but after rounding the corner of the local fish store I was greeted by a pair of button eyes and boobs...on his head. I sensibly said no to him but yes to my son, who had saved money for a fish of his own. It took over twenty minutes to get help from someone to bag up the second dude in quarantine and in that time Gnocchi's wiggles and pleas for rescue broke me down and he made his way home with Memo, Kid-1's orange Lionhead. Both are just too cute for words and pretty scrappy! Memo has these fluffy cheeks and while small, a mighty attitude. He's often seen herding the other fish out of his way in order to get the Lion's share of the food!

Tada...

These last two are a totally different story. I am a member of a Goldfish Forum that has a monthly photo contest. Well, after 14 months of effort I won the contest in November. That month the sponsor for the site just so happened to offer a free black Ranchu as a prize. Pretty cool really as that doesn't happen too often. I opted to purchase a second Ranchu for a friend that also keeps fish and she later decided not to buy the fish (after it was paid for by me). Oh darn! What will I do? Quarantine him with all the other new guys...lol. These little cuties have been dubbed, Mully and Sculder. In the running was Pete and Repete, Hawkeye n Honeycutt, and Hocus n Pocus. If both had been girls I think Laverne and Shirley would have been a winner but Sculder is a boy so...my love of all things sci-fi, which includes the first couple seasons of the X-Files spawned their names. I also had a blah moment and transposed the letters so that explains the dyslexic lettering. Better pics to come soon!

Tada:

Hot Lips my fish hat!

LOVE, love, love this fish hat. I found the fun pattern here: http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfishy.php

It took me by surprise how badly I wanted to knit this little darling up. It's for me, of course, but I have visions of everyone I love joining the club and have plans to get several more under way. I used a fuzzy pink yarn for her lips...hence the name.

She took all weekend long to make up and finish (someone is a real stickler about the details) and I modified the pattern a tab by casting on 80 stitches instead of 90. I also adjusted the short rows for the mouth and repeated decrease four. It fits nicely and I think the original cast-on's would have made it a tad large (I have a pretty decent size head too).

She proved to be a spunky little fish hat and tried to nibble on my arm. The third shot shows a close-up of her eye. I needle felted the white area and then installed her pupil (it's a safety eye for stuffed animals). I then did a rough satin stitch to add a slight eye lid and some eyelashes.

Youngest son had an affinity with her they sure were cute in this photo!

Welcome 2009!

Happy 2009! Isn't a new year wonderful? I often think the powers-that-be made an observance of time in order to give us a sense of renewal and hope. It's a little like recapturing our childhood. The possibilities are endless and what's more, the DESIRE to achieve them is endless...for a bit. :

We went to California to visit the Hub's family and take the kids to Disney Land as their "big gift" for this year. I don't like the idea of going broke for a day as everyday, in theory, should be a gift but it was a great trip. We saw Duane's youngest sister and it's been a while since she's spent time with her nephews. They loved her!

We have some record snow and weather while we were gone and bless-him the Hubs was having a fit about it all. He loves the snow and we hardly get any here in the PNW as there have to be "just right" conditions for such an occurence...lol. It was indeed a white Christmas and since we flew home Christmas Day it was a special gift just for him. I can take or leave the snow.

Made some new woolies and one was a gift for a lovely lady in Oregon that comissioned me for the lions. She requested some black bears and soon thereafter a tiny little fish made it's way to her house.

The fish is Penny (For Your Thoughts) Goldfish and was a special, "thanks" for liking my oddish art.

The bears were a total pain to photograph (black is no bueno to capture) but here are a couple of attempts:

Not all the comissions were a huge success and thank goodness this one wasn't paid for until I was finished (which means she didn't have to pay anything)! Lol. I attempted to felt a couple of my cro-sculpted horses but stuffed them BEFORE I felted them in my front loader with no shoes to agitate. With those two factors they felted unevenly so I'll be making them all over again...ugh! It's a compulsion to finish anything I fail at and sometimes it really stinks! They were intended for five year old twins so they were suppose to be able to handle rough loving.

They turned out kinda cute in a "fat pony" sort of way:

True to the Resolution Cliche the Hubs and I decided it was time to lose weight. Twenty pounds for both of us and more exercise. The exercise part is easy for both of us, we both maintain frequent routines. The hard part will be the diet. Who in the world invented that insidious word? It just sounds nasty!