Crocheting With A Busted Wing!! / March Contest!

Back in late October I was doing one of my favorite things, frying up a mess of fried chicken dinner with all the fixings for company. Just as dinner was going 'critical' I went to wash out one of the chicken skillets at the sink. When I flipped the skillet over to rinse the underside I felt a horrible tearing sensation in my arm, so painful I almost blacked out. It turned out I had ruptured my long biceps tendon in my right arm. After a couple of months my arm and hand function were still not good so my ortho doc ordered a ct scan. That's when I learned I had large full thickness tears in three of the four rotator cuff tendons. Ruh-roh. I was immediately scheduled for surgery for January 28. My very talented surgeon was able to make the needed repairs but told me everything in there is tissue thin. That means I have to have the shoulder immobilized for at least six weeks. At this writing I will have gotten through four of those weeks tomorrow. I just started PT where they are lifting my arm in limited movements. I'm told it's going to be a very long road of many months before I get my arm back.

One of the few good moments about this was figuring out on my 3rd night home that I could crochet!! (I'm allowed to move my hand and wrist as long as I sing lift anything). I started out by crocheting a nice soft bag for my ice packs out of 100% cotton. After that I designed an oven mitt my daughter in law wanted. Then I started a set of placemats for my daughter. After that I found some thread I wanted to make a wedding doily for my daughter's upcoming wedding. I designed and patterned that but I won't be showing it until it's been given to her. Then I started something really major to keep myself busy! It's a round shawl in mint green rayon thread (with a size 10 hook). So far it's up to about 13" diameter.  I figure I have just under 3 months to finish it and I may make it if I work on it nearly every day. 

February Blog Contest Winner!

For February, I asked my readers to suggest a flower for my next doily creation. Many of you submitted flower ideas and I appreciate that! The one that intrigued me most was Liz's suggestion of a Peony flower and I have chosen her entry as the winner. Liz won my "Floral Ornaments To Crochet" e-book and the pattern of her choice from my My For-Sale Crochet Patterns At Craftsy.com site. Congratulations Liz and thanks again to everyone who entered! 

March Contest 

For the upcoming month of March, I need a very special idea from my readers! My daughter is getting married in May. She still needs the "something old" item. I'd like to crochet it, or embellish it with crochet, whatever "it" is! It needs to be something that can be easily worn, carried or sewn into her dress on the inside. She suggested using some of her old baby dresses or some sentimental fabric from another special dress I made for her once. SO... any ideas? Winner will receive the pattern of your choice from my for-sale pattern site and a copy of my "Floral Ornaments To Crochet" e-book (and my undying gratitude!) 

Just leave a comment below with your suggestion and an email where I can contact you if you win! 

Just Off My Hook/Upcoming Surgery/New Blog Contest!

January is half gone and I don't know where it went! I know I have been busy crocheting, which is a great thing. After my long hiatus, I feel energized now and my motivation is back! I just finished crocheting a hat for my son out of Sugar n' Cream which is a liner for his welding helmet or whatever it's called! Made a potholder which is the start of a wedding gift, a kitchen set for a friend of my daughter's. I've finished the two front panels for a vest I'm doing that may eventually turn into a sweater or poncho - not sure yet! It's done in Bernat's Alpaca in the Seaside colorway, a beautiful mint green which is my favorite color right now!

Made two sweaters for little daschund doggie friends of mine for belated Christmas! The red one was designed the way it is so that it can easily be put on and taken off of Lucey, who is disabled. She has a left front leg that is useless and regular sweaters hurt her to put on. Here she is modeling her new sweater (made in Bernat's Blanket chenille) along with her sister Sadey. Sadey's sweater is hard to see because it matches her! Hers is done in JoAnn's Angel Hair in black, with trim done in a yarn called Pelt. It very closely resembles rabbit fur, love it!

Lucey in her new sweater! 

Lucey's sweater slips over her head then the long piece wraps
under her abdomen, comes back up and buttons on top. 

Sadey and Lucey are happy wearing their toasty new sweaters!

Sadey's sweater is a simple slip-on design. 

The next project on my hook is going to be an infinity scarf done in Red Heart's Chic yarn, the one with the pom poms. I'm not sure why, but this yarn confuses the heck out of me just trying to unwind and work with it! I did a scarf out of it for myself in the Shadow colorway and adore it, so it's totally worth the effort... but it took me about an hour to unwind the skein and rewind it into a usable ball. Even then I struggled with the pom poms getting tangled up and creating knots! Sigh... my goddaughter saw my scarf, fell in love with it and just has to have one! So I picked up two skeins of it in black. Although I'm dreading it, at least the yarn feels amazing to work with.

My Red Heart Chic infinity scarf in Shadow (2 skeins). It
is incredibly yummy to wear! 

I'm going to undergo rotator cuff surgery on January 28, would appreciate prayers and good thoughts as I go through this. I have full thickness tears in three of the four rotator cuff tendons, plus a ruptured biceps tendon. I have lost some of the use of my right arm but thank God I can still crochet! Not sure if I will be allowed to for awhile after the surgery. I do know my arm will be in an immobilizer for 4-6 weeks and then I start physical therapy to get it all back.

I think it's about time for a new blog contest, don't you? I want to work on a new doily while I recover from my surgery. I'd like it to be a floral, my favorite thing. SO... leave me a comment indicating what flower you'd like me to feature in my next design. I will select the winner with a drawing. The winner will receive their choice of any one of my for-sale crochet patterns at Craftsy.com AND my Floral Ornaments To Crochet e-book. So think of your favorite flower and enter now! I'll close the contest in two weeks and choose the winning entry.

Happy crocheting, everyone!  xoxo – Sheila

Christmas Crocheting/A Tiny Brag!

The tiny brag first – I am very honored that author Kathryn Vercilio has featured my work in an article at the About.com crochet website!

I haven't started my annual Christmas 2014 design yet! I haven't had inspiration strike me yet. I guess I just need to do a bit of brainstorming. I'm thinking it may be an ornament this year. Last year was the Christmas Candy Canes Doily.

I started a scarf for myself out of Red Heart's "Chic" yarn last winter and ran out of yarn. I found another skein online a few weeks ago and finished my scarf. LOVE the yummy feel of it! But I admit I find the yarn extremely frustrating to work with. I guess I just don't get the way they wind the skeins. I fought with both skeins trying to untangle them and rewind them into usable balls. Even then, those silly pom poms want to tangle up! But the finished product is so worth it! My fairy goddaughter wants mine so I guess I will have to brave the yarn once more and make one for her.

Red Heart "Chic" Scarf in Shadow

I have been busy designing some Christmas gifts for friends and family, here is one of them... a simple cowl. It's actually just a long strip, I've fastened the overlapped end with a pretty brooch. I kind of like it! It's made out of JoAnn's Rainbow Boucle yarn. It has a nice light feel and a pretty drape to it.

Cowl With Purchased Brooch

My rescue Schnauzer Whizzer is my little old man, he gets so cold and needs to have a sweater on. I had some leftover yarn lying around and whipped up this little sweater for him. It's very soft and he seems to enjoy it!

Whizzer Enjoys His New Cozy Sweater!

I'm still behind on my crocheting - I owe my potholder exchange partner a potholder still! So hopefully will get that done this week and off in the mail.

I've been so busy for the past few months I feel like I've been chasing a whirlwind! The work has been ongoing with editing and tidying up links on the move of over 300 crochet patterns and other articles to the new site. It's nearly complete now and the index now contains correct links.  I'm sorry if you had any trouble accessing my patterns. The auto-link forwarding the new site promised didn't work. If you tried the index and hit bad links trying to find patterns, try again now. They should all be working!

Well, I'm off to crochet something! Hope you are all having fun doing lots of holiday projects! Remember if you need a fast gift, try the Warm Mobius Scarf! You can whip it up in a couple of hours! Or check out my pattern index for other ideas.

New Location For My Free Patterns!

I have changed the location of all my free patterns on the internet after the closing down of the Squidoo.com site where they were previously housed. All of my patterns can now be found at HubPages.com. The link to my pattern index is here. If you have any trouble getting to a specific pattern from the index, you can drop me an email at sheilaschnauzies@gmail.com. There may be some of these issues until I get through the process of editing several hundred articles I had to relocate to HubPages. But all of the patterns are available and all you have to do is drop me an email if you have problems.

After several months of what I can only describe as "medical hiatus," I finally have a new design to share! Just in time for Thanksgiving, it's my "Pecan Pie Potholder." It can be a single thickness decorative potholder or a double thickness usable potholder.

I tried to design the stitches to look like pecans as best I could. The yarn part was easy – Peaches n' Creme has an awesome new brown variegated yarn that I used. It was fun designing the piecrust edging. This was designed for my potholder exchange partner who will be receiving the prototype in the mail this week! I hope she enjoys it...

Pecan Pie Potholder Front Side

Pecan Pie Potholder Back Side

Right now I am in the middle of designing a little purse designed to be worn as a belt (or could be a cross-body as well). It's out of Premier Yarns Jeweltones in the Moonstone and Opal color ways. I'm trying to design it to hold my own specific essentials for when I want to travel light without the "big purse." We were out at a wonderful campfire recently at my son's house and there I was, lugging "Betsy" the purse out there. It seemed silly somehow!

I'm hoping to make a little cowl out of the same yarn as the purse to go with the fingerless gloves I made out of it last winter. I really adore this yarn!

Hope all of you are having fun crocheting something wonderful!

Feels Great To Be Crocheting Again... Or, A Little Mess Is A Good Thing!

I've always thought of crocheting as "pick-up work" – something I can keep beside my favorite chair and pick up whenever the mood strikes. Well, when my leg injuries back in March happened, I had coincidentally made one big change in my environment! At around that same time, I'd just finished doing a big clean-up of my work area (which is a large corner of my living room, at present). I put absolutely everything away where it belonged in the craft room. No more being surrounded by bags of yarn. My crochet hooks all neatly organized in a holder on my desk rather than stuck into various projects in the works. I quickly found myself being hesitant to drag anything out in order to avoid making a mess! So rather than crocheting to distract me from the pain I was going through, I was doing other things... nonproductive ones, like eating junk food and watching a lot of TV! No wonder I kept feeling more and more awful.

A few days ago I managed to get hurt yet again. It was a beautiful Saturday morning and I was out on the back patio "putzing" around in my containers of flowers and veggie plants. I barely bumped into the side of a big container with my leg, and ended up with a 7 X 1 cm. laceration, just half an inch above the topmost prior injury we've been trying to heal up for months. It was, and is, a big setback. It means another 4-6 months before this one will close up and heal. More pain, more frustration... but I'm going to deal with this one differently. I'm going to deal with it the same way I dealt with all my surgeries and everything else I've gone through - I'm going to crochet, design, and write.

A Sunflower For Betty Potholder

I started with my "to-do" list. I belong to a monthly potholder exchange group for fun. I still owed a partner a potholder for May, another for June, and here July is looming with another deadline. I also have some crocheted snowflakes I've promised to folks. I knew my May partner liked sunflowers, so I got my favorite hook out and got to work. The result, a couple of days later, is "A Sunflower For Betty." It can be used made double thickness as I did for a potholder, or it could be used as a round floral motif for something else. I hope she will like it! I'm planning to get it patterned up and published as one of my free patterns after I get the rest of my "to-do's" done. People are waiting, after all!

A Sunflower For Betty Potholder Back Side

I think I will learn to live with just a little mess surrounding me. It's always "how I've rolled" and I need to have pick-up work where I can instantly get to it.

As I write this, I have my idea for the June potholder and have started crocheting on it! I'll come back here and show you when it's done.

Still Here...

It's been a long time since I posted. I've been taking a little hiatus from my usual crocheting and writing. Mostly because of injuries I had to both legs in march which caused some big problems. Trying to heal pwies when you're diabetic is a real struggle. There's a lot of pain involved and I've been in a kind of survival mode I guess. I will be back with new ideas soon I hope! But for now I'll be healing up for at least several more weeks. Hugs to all my crochet friends out there!

Signs of Spring are finally appearing here in Nebraska! I'm on Crocus watch... they are up a few inches but not blooming yet. We're having that usual manic weather that has you in the 70's and dropping to the 30's in the same afternoon... crazy. Anyway the weather does influence what I'm designing in crochet, of course. With Spring in mind I am just finishing the new Watering Can Potholder I've designed for my potholder exchange I participate in each month.

All finished on side 1!

I've done side 2 in a simple stitch of SC/DC repeated in rows, then reversing the pattern on the next row. With my arthritic hands I'm having to crochet the two sides together in sessions doing a few stitches at a time - it's tough going for me for some reason. Oh well! I hope my recipient will be pleased.

I'm still working away at my big project, another wearable afghan convertible scarf/poncho thing that I haven't even thought of a name to describe yet! It's going to be cool, and I've never seen anything like it. It's done all in JoAnn Angel Hair yarn which has an amazing feel, in practically every color it comes in. The yarn has kept me busy finding JoAnn coupons to keep the cost down!! Yikes it's been a yarn eater. Hopefully it will all be worth it! Tell you what, it'll be a perfect project to eat up scrap yarn when I make the next one! The stitch is simple, the yarn's color patterns and the overall designs are the stars. Can't wait to show you when it's finished - hopefully another week or two!

Other than that, I've still been fighting a bad myasthenia flare the last couple of months, having frequent transfusions to get my muscle strength back. I'll get there eventually!

Happy crocheting everyone! I'm off to write an article about a new pattern for doggie boots to publish in SoCrafty this week.