Tot Shoes

These are several pairs of toddler shoes someone gave me to put together for donation. Not crochet or yarn related but worth it to share. I love them.

Dragons!

My days have been recently filled with lovable, hugable dragons. This pattern is by Sharon Ojala and can be found for free on her blog at amigurumitogo.com.

Meet Lila and Sam

A Month in the hospital and TTP diagnosis

So I got home yesterday afternoon after a month in the hospital. I was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called TTP (Thrombocytopenia procura). It's a blood disease that simply put, causes your platlets to stick together and form clots. I was pretty close to death and to be honest it's actually had a positive effect on me. I learned a lot in the remission process about myself and my friends and family and I also learned how to rely on the kindness of strangers.
I am not totally in remission yet, I just got the word that the disease is considered inactive at the moment. My danger zone is the next four weeks of this re flaring. But for right now I am going to relax and enjoy being home until my first blood test tomorrow.
But I have to say thank you to a lot of people. First the nurses and PCA's at the OSU James center on the 16th floor. They treated me like family and I felt so loved and comfortable with these people. They helped bring me back from my illness but mostly they provided emotional support and kept my anxiety at bay with laughter, hugs and kisses.
The Apheresis team was amazing as well. They also treated me like family and made sure I was as comfortable as I could be during my plasma exchanges. They supported me and cheered me on constantly. I had the most laughter down there. It's amazing how quickly they had all of my habits and preferences pegged in such a short time.
And the doctors of course. I know I gave them all headaches with my anxiety attacks but they handled it with grace and one in particular kept me sane there at the end (I'm looking at you Mr. Specialist). Then there are the other staff members who I got attached too that came to see me even after they were switched around and a certain house keeper who visited me with giggles every day that I adore.
Also there is a blanket thank you to the churches that donated money to help keep our home afloat and the siblings, cousins, neice, best friend and Aunt who visited me and brought me goodies to keep my fingers moving. I don't think I would have handled it well without my crafts and goodies.
But I have to say I am most greatful to those who donate blood and blood products. I never realized how important this was until I needed it to save my life so anyone reading this with good blood, please donate. Please please.....

I still have months to go before I am out of the woods. This can put me back in at anytime and I have tons of blood work to go and treatments and lots of medication so I am still weak and sick. But what I need most right now is prayer, time, patience and love. Pray for me. I love you all.

Ariel

My prayer today: Thank you God for my seizure which saved my life first of all. And thank you for sending me to the right place to start to heal. Thank you for supporting me and guiding me and thank you for guiding me to my wonderful supportive husband and for my beautiful friends and family. 

p.s. Winnie the pooh characters to come soon!

Star Wars Part 1

I finally found my camera so here is a new post, finally. I have been making my husband a set of Star Wars dolls from a kit I got for Christmas. The kit is by Lucy Collins (blog: lucyravenscar.blogspot.com) and has 12 patterns from the original Star Wars series. It even came with enough material to make a Storm Trooper and a Yoda! I did modify a few things but I will explain as I go.

The first modification I did was to increase the hook size used from a E to an F (U.S.). I was having issues with making some of the parts so small and the slight increase did the trick. Luckily I crochet tight enough to do this. Anyways, here are some photo's.

First is Leia and a Storm Trooper. I thought Leia was surprisingly easy to make and I was impressed with Lucy's method of doing her hair. Super easy and cute.

Next is Han and Chewy. Chewy so far has been my favorite doll of them all. This doll is kind of special because it's my very first fuzzy doll. The effect was made with a wire dog brush and some patience.

sNext is Darth Vadar and Luke in his black outfit. I like them both but I want to mess with Vadar's mask a bit to see if it can be improved. I think the mask is a bit to circular and I would like to see it not stick out so far on the face. I learned through Luke that I need serious work on mouths.

Next is Jabba and C3PO. Both were so annoying to crochet. First I had issues with C3PO's eyes. I didn't have the eyes Lucy used so I improvised and crocheted them. Bright yellow didn't look right so the best I could do is to find the color of his eyes when they aren't lit... light gold/brown. Jabba was a whole other story, first I couldn't find the right color. I still hate this color for Jabba but I found a better green later. This is my first one. Then, I messed up his tail. I was watching Fast and the Furious 7 for the first time and I wasn't fully paying attention and messed up the pattern. I made his tail so big that his body could fit inside. So the tail you see is my frustrated version which was corrected on my second doll. 

Last is Yoda and Wicket. Both I loved doing. Wickets hood thing gave me trouble at first because I was again being lazy with my pattern reading. 

 All in all I really liked her patterns and have plans to buy the other five she has available in her etsy shop (https://www.etsy.com/shop/lucyravenscar). So much fun to make!

First Published Crochet Pattern-Mittens

I have a favor to ask. If any crocheters out there read this, please try out my pattern and tell me what you think of it. I wanted a sc pattern for mittens that form fitted my hand. I have an average/large female hand. I am going to redesign the squarish tip for the main finger area but the main thing I want to know is how the thumb area looks and feels to everyone. If you are not a crocheter, below is a pic, tell me what you think. Pattern to follow pic. The pattern is still rough so if your a beginner I wouldn't recommend trying it.

My Mittens

Four Fingers

Row 1: Chain 9

Row 2: 2 sc in second chain from hook, sc 6, sc 4 in last chain, sc 6, sc 2 in last chain

Row 3: 2 sc in the first 2 st, sc 7, 2 sc in next 3, sc 7, 2 sc in the last st.

Row 4-9 sc in each st around

Row 10: sc in first st, 2 sc in next 2 st, 10 sc, 2 sc in next 2 st, 11 sc

Row 11-22: sc in each st around

Row 23: sc 4, ch 11, sk 2, sc 24

Row 24: sc 4, sc blo next 11, sc 24

Row 25: sc in each st around.

Row 26: sc 6, sc 2 tog, sc, sc 2 tog, sc 28

Row 27: sc in each st around

Row 28: sc 8, 2 tog, sc 18, 2 tog,  sc 7

Row 29-30: sc in each around.

Row 31: sc 4, sc 2 tog, sc 2, sc 2 tog, sc 2, sc 2 tog, sc 12, sc 2 tog, sc 1, sc 2 tog, sc 4

Row 32: sc 7, sc 2 tog, sc 14, sc 2 tog, sc 5

Row 33: sc 16, sc 2 tog, sc 5, sc 2 tog, 3 sc

Row 34-35: sc each st around

Chain 7 work in BLO, sc in second chain from hook, sc six, sc anchor st 2, turn, sk 2 anchor st, sc 6, ch 1, turn. Repeat for

Thumb

Row 1: sc 15 evenly around

Row 2: sc in each st around

Row 3: sc in each st around

Row 4: sc in each st around

Row 5: sc 2 tog, sc 14

Row 6: sc in each st around

Row 7: sc in each st around

Row 8: sc in each st around

Row 9: sc in each st around

Row 10: sc in each st around

Row 11: sc in each st around

Close

  

Misophonia

time to take a break from crochet.

Okay, as a person who suffers from this I can say as I hear the thump, thump, thump of the music that has been on for now 9 hours and 9 minutes, this is a miserable condition. Misophonia is real, it's not me being obnoxious or a generally angry person.
Misophonia is an auditory condition that is made up of certain trigger sounds that create a rage when heard by the sufferer. It's often called sound sensitivity but I think this term although accurate, dismisses this as a true condition. I still don't know if it's auditory or mental though in my opinion it's a bit of both.
Today as the music mentioned above played/plays I have been thinking about how it makes me feel. I feel angry, I have violent thoughts against the person playing the music although I don't know him/her and would never act on them. I have a headache. I haven't been able to concentrate all day on anything else but the music no matter how hard I have tried. I am wearing ear plugs but I still hear the music. I am trying to decide if I hear it in my head or if I am actually hearing it though. I have determined today that Misophonia is a miserable condition that causes me to avoid certain noises and people like the plague. It has changed my life in a negative way. I don't even enjoy going out to eat with friends. As a matter of fact the only real friend I have lives a few states away and I am almost friendless partly because of the Misophonia. I can't even enjoy holidays with family because of this. For example, on the fourth of July a little boy was eating crunchy food. I sat with my fingers in my ears like a disobedient child would do when they don't want to listen to their parents. Just for good measure and partly for personal therapy reasons I want to finish this off with a list of my triggers.

1. obviously, bass filled music.
2. ANY crunchy food.
3. rude people who chew like a cow chewing cud.
4.  bouncing balls
5. hammering a nail.
6. believe it or not, techno music. (repetitive beats)
7. wind chimes
8. squeaky belts on cars
9. reving engines.
10. sniffling (probably should be number one)
11. the noise people make when they suck their teeth.
12. people chewing gum
13. snoring (which has caused arguments between me and my husband
14.  forks scraping plates

and the list goes on....

But the thing is, Misophonia is not only auditory for me. I have visual triggers too and most people with this condition complain of the same thing. My visual triggers are...

1. tapping feet/knees/legs in general.
2. something barely in front of the TV screen
3. air freshners on rear view mirrors.
4. again, bouncing balls.
5. hands to close to my face.


BUT Misophonia is also not just auditory or visual.... it's also motion and sensation triggered.

1. when my husband taps his leg against mine repeatedly.
2. if the wind blows my mobile home I can't sleep.
3. if the dog pants while laying on the bed.
4. if there is a single crumb in the bed (which is why my nickname was the princess and the pea)
5. if my socks are crooked.

So really, today I realize that I'm either completely crackers or there is really something to all this. Doctors, figure this out please!

OCTOPI!

I did these with my octopus loving friend in mind. You know who you are. The pattern is by Paula Gail in her blog post titled Crochet and Octopus. Here is the link http://paulagail.hubpages.com/hub/crochetoctopus

I did change how the center part of the octopus is closed. I believe she leaves it open but since my stuff goes to children I wanted to stuff so the stuffing won't come out. So in the second row of the body I single crocheted in the front loops only which created a ridge on the inside. On this ridge I single crocheted around then closed the center with a yarn needle. This is a super fast project (less than an hour) and I think this will be my new go too for using up yarn scraps.