Horsea by the Duck Pond

During our Pokemon Go! filled summer, my boys quickly developed favorite Pokemon. My 5-year-old fell in love with Horsea, a sea horse Pokemon that we caught by the duck pond in our neighborhood.

I made up the pattern for it and finished it in a few days. I crocheted in the front loops only, then turned it inside out so it had a scale-like feel and look to him. 

 I love his little nose/spout!

 His tail curls perfectly.

He has one little fin on the very back of his body.

So happy to have his new buddy!

Horsea was actually a lot easier to make than I thought he'd be. Making the spikes for the side of his head was my favorite part, and I used techniques I learned from making the Leprechaun back in March. 

I have a few more Pokemon posts to make, but those will have to wait until after Christmas, due to my wrap-everything-the-moment-it-comes/is-finished motto. I can't wait to show you all the rest!

Pikachu, I Choose You!

Pokemon Go! came out this past summer and my kids were put into full Pokemon trainer mode. We'd set off on long adventures, walking to parks, going to the lake, and anywhere else we thought we'd successfully find our fun little virtual friends. I have never seen so much of the city and state that I live in as I did this past summer.

My youngest son, the 3-year-old, took a liking to Pikachu, so I whipped up a little one that he could easily carry in one of his chubby-still-baby-like hands.

Look how little he is! The tail was a nightmare. I ended up having to find someone else's pattern for it, and I'm so glad I did. (The link to the tail is on the bottom of the post.)

 I love this little guy!

His sweet face.

Pikachu has gone all over with us since coming off the hook. He has slid down giant, swirling sides, been thrown through the air across playgrounds, fields, and walkways. He has ridden in the 3-year-old's cup holder on long car rides, has been swung about by his tail in wild, fast circles, and has been snuggled in the 3-year-old's sleep, never too far away. 

I even got a fist bump for completing it! 

Here's a link to the tail pattern I used: Pikachu Tail

Pinch Me!

My best friend, who is seriously a sister to me, has a lovely Irish heritage, one that she has fully embraced. I love it about her.

Back in March this year, since the surgery went so well and I was feeling better, I decided to make something fun for her and my little nieces and nephews for St. Patrick's Day. 

I found the perfect little black pot and filled it with chocolate gold coins, a bag of m&ms, a bag of skittles, and this ADORABLE little guy: 

He was much taller than I thought he would be!

I used a pattern from Fresh Stitches by Stacey Trock, because her pattern was just too cute to pass up. He took some time, (the hat was half his body size) but he was so worth it. When he was finished, my 3-year-old declared him his and sent him down his little slide over and over again until I snatched him up in the night and put him in his pot of gold with all of the other goodies and sent him off in the mail to his new home. 

I will definitely have to make another leprechaun for my own house this next year. I'm going to name him Blarney.

Jiji and the Realization that Something was Wrong

Over the years Halloween has become one of my favorite holidays, just for decoration purposes. I could totally do without the trick-or-treating.

With that being said, I was finishing up my Halloween decorating and realized that I wanted, needed, to crochet Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service for my Halloween decorations. The husband and I had found the most wonderful little black bird's cage for cheap and it immediately reminded me of the scene where Jiji had to pretend to be the stuffed cat while Kiki had to find the actual toy that had fallen out of the gold birdcage it came in.

So I got to work and made up the pattern to this sweet, little guy:

So sweet!!!

All ready in his cage, dangling from our ceiling.

I made him in an afternoon, stuffing his little body with those tiny plastic beads that you find in beanie babies to weigh him down. 

However, after my short spurt of crocheting, my hands were incredibly worse than they were before. I began to drop things, because my grip had gotten so weak. On top of it all, I sat down to read a book and found that I couldn't hold it. At. All. I was devastated. Who would have thought that a little 9" kitty could push me over the edge of my carpal tunnel syndrome? Well, he did. 

But it was a blessing in disguise, really. I approached the husband and told him my plight and we made an appointment to see the specialist the very next day. 1 week later, I was under the knife and had my palms sliced open a nice inch and a half to release my carpal tunnels. 

The recovery was BRUTAL. I couldn't use my hands for a long time afterwards. It hurt to open doors for about a month post surgery. I couldn't open jars for a LONG time. And if anything pulled my thumb joint down, I would scream in agony during the first 6 months after the surgery. 

But that is all in the past. I feel so much better. I can write thousands of words a day (I started writing books!), I can hold books as I read without any pain or numbness, and I can crochet! I never realized how bad my carpal tunnel was until the end. I have definitely learned to not put things off, especially things that affect my quality of life. 

And this year, when I pulled out my little Jiji, I gave him a silent thanks for pushing me to get the help I needed. It gave me my life back. Thanks again, little friend!

Finally an Update!

It's been way too long since I updated this blog. It isn't that I haven't wanted to keep it up, but it mainly was because I had severe carpal tunnel syndrome and needed bilateral carpal tunnel surgery a little over a year ago.

Luckily my hands have mostly recovered. My left hand may be permanently damaged, because the muscles in my palm (especially the pad below my thumb) were cut off from the nerve, so they atrophied. If I crochet too long, my hand aches due to my muscles not used to being used. Luckily I found some awesome compression gloves that help a ton. I'm hoping that by crocheting and doing hand exercises, my hand will improve. However, my doctor told me that there is a chance that it will never recover. If that's the case, then I accept it. I'll take what I can get!

I have been able to crochet mostly pain-free again, though! I've decided to make a few blogposts about what I've made in the past few years as I suffered and recovered. It isn't nearly as much as I wish it was, but seriously. I couldn't use my hands for a lot of things.

The first in my handful of updates is something I made for my middle son about 3 years ago for Christmas. He fell in love with a PBS show called Peep in the Big Wide World, and I happily made these cuties for a special surprise for him. He has loved them to death over the years. (Seriously).

Aren't they adorable?

I made up the patterns myself, which I prefer to do. I did not write them down, though. They were pretty simple to make and I'm pretty sure I could figure them out all over again if I needed to.