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!