It's working...ick...

Well, the MMR shot I got yesterday feels like it's working. I feel like you do after you get a flu shot...like I've got the flu...a bad case of the flu!

and I'm going out tonight with a friend for dinner and a movie...(argh! bad bad BAD timing...should have got the shot monday!)

I guess that means that I must not have had any immunity to any of the 3 viruses the MMR shot protects you from.

Oh well...I'd rather go thru a few days of feeling icky from the shot than get the actual mumps.

I finished one afghan (pictures coming soon), and started another one pretty much immediately. The new one is a giant rectangle granny square, and I'm using Red Heart SS Amethyst, and Red Heart Giant Candy Print (variegaited in shades of pink). I only have two skeins of the Candy Print (but they're 12oz skeins, equal to nearly 3 1/2 skeins of SS) so most of the afghan is going to be the Amethyst color.

I'm only six rounds into the new afghan, but I like the color so far...I might throw in another shade of purple...if I have any.

Great...thanks a lot Iowa...

I just got back from the doctor's office. No, I'm not sick. I had to go get an MMR booster (Mumps, Measles, Rubella) shot.

I live in Nebraska, fairly close to the Nebraska/Iowa border, and apparently there's a mumps epidemic going on in Iowa. The local news reported that people in my age group (mid-30's) are the ones that seem to be getting hit hard with the mumps epidemic. Apparently they either needed the booster, or their original vaccination was either handled improperly or there was something wrong with the actual vaccine.

I could have had a blood test to tell me if I'm immune to the mumps, but that was $120, and the shot was $97, so I decided to just get the shot...it wont hurt me if I'm already immune, and I wouldnt have to hit my dad up for the $120 for the blood test.

So, now that I'm all current with my shots, I'm going to sit down and relax tonight and finish the afghan that I'm almost done with...and then finish the other afghan and the sweater that I'm also almost done with.

Stop beating the dead horse...you're only making a mess.

There's been a debate about copyright theft going on in one of the crochet forums I go to. I participated in the debate. I made my points (fairly well, I might add) and then I backed off, and quit posting about the subject once I made my point. (which was, that copyright theft/infringement is wrong, and you shouldnt do it)

It would be nice if the people who are still arguing for why they think there's nothing wrong with copyright theft would just back off and let the subject die.

I get it. You're all for it, you're going to keep doing it, and nothing I can say is going to stop you.

All you're doing is making it painfully obvious that you dont give a shit about the designers you're hurting.

Found some more pictures of TinyMonsters (my recently deceased dog)

Here's a picture of TinyMonsters, saying "hello" to his best friend Pudge (my aunt's pug).

Pudge misses Tiny...she walked across the street to my house the other night, ran up to me to say "hi", and then was looking around as if she was wondering where I was hiding Tiny, and when he was going to come leaping out to see her. I told Pudge to watch out for his ghost...he might just be lurking nearby.

the picture was probably taken in 2001.

Here's a picture of me and Tiny in the driveway of my old house...looks like I must have just woken Tiny up from a nap or something with that big yawning stretch he's doing...

Look what I found!

I've been making copies of some picture cd's that my dad has, and while I was doing that, I found a bunch of pictures of projects that I crocheted years back...some that I didnt remember making until I saw them. Here are a few of them.

I think this might be the first American flag afghan I ever crocheted. There's no pattern, I just did it by sight. I think I used puff stitches for the body of the afghan. I'm pretty sure I gave this afghan to my cousin Candy. (her mom Janice is the one holding up the afghan)

This is probably the first scrap afghan I ever made. I made this for my uncle Frank.

Here I am, working on an afghan I gave my grandmother for Christmas in 2000

Here is my Grandma O'Neil, sitting with the Christmas afghan that I made for her. (the purple, white and black afghan folded on the back of her chair is another giant rectangle granny that I made for my aunt MaryLynne)

and this is a giant rectangle granny that I crocheted for my cousin Sarah. She's hiding behind the afghan

And this is my cousin Scotty (Sarah's brother), holding up the afghan I made for him. His dad, my uncle Frank is the person seated behind him.

Wow...I can still draw!

Surprised that I'm still able to draw and have the drawing actually look like what I'm trying to draw. This is supposed to be a sketch of TinyMonsters that I did from a photograph. I know I screwed up a bit on his back legs in the drawing, but I think this is pretty good. It's the first time I've tried to sketch anything in years...I've been concentrating on my crochet skills more than my drawing skills.

Here's the sketch of TinyMonsters, the original photograph is below

Danged allergies!!

Well, we'd attempted to adopt a Yorkie Terrier puppy this weekend.

Found a beautiful yorkie puppy in Plattsmouth, NE. Brought him home on a trial basis.

Good thing it was a trial, because I started to have an allergic reaction to the little guy by the next morning. Spent the day trying to deny that I was having an allergic reaction.

We ended up taking the little guy back to the breeder's house last night. He was really a good dog...if I hadnt been going mad from hives and starting to sniffle and sneeze I would have kept him.

He was a lot different than Tiny was when he was a baby...this little puppy was actually almost well behaved. All puppies are maniacal little terrors, and this guy wasnt any different, except for the fact that he seemed to want to please us. He'd go into his crate without complaining, and he'd actually stay in there quietly while I was eating last night.

Tiny was the Puppy From Hell, but he turned out to be the best dog in the world. I really hope whoever gets to adopt that little puppy realizes the good potential that little guy has...he could end up being just as good a dog as TinyMonsters was.

I wish I hadnt had that allergic reaction to him

I hadnt eaten anything all day yesterday, mostly because I didnt (and still dont) feel good, and partially because I wasnt sure if the hives was related to the dog or a food allergy. So I went without eating, and the hives started getting worse and I was getting sniffly and sneezy and my eyes were watering.

Since we took him back I've been getting better, not so sniffly or sneezy...but my eyes are still feeling the pain and I still have a few hives lingering around.

The whole allergy thing kind of makes me wonder if this explains my unexplained hives that I've been having on and off for the past year. I hope I wasnt developing an allergy to dogs...I *might* (but probably wont) get another one someday.

Thought this was interesting

Was talking to my dad tonight about TinyMonsters. My dad just found out that Tiny's older brother (same parents, but from the litter before Tiny's) died under similar circumstances.

He's not sure if it's the exact same as Tiny, but the circumstances sounded very similar. Tiny's older brother, Frankie was the only pup in his mother's first litter...Tiny's litter had 9 puppies in it, and the litter after that had 10.

I'd be really curious to find out if any of the other dogs from Tiny's litter or even from his bloodline has had kidney problems.

Explanation as to what happened to Tiny.

I talked to Tiny's vet. He said Tiny died from kidney failure and possibly an embolism. If there was an embolism, it probably blocked blood flow to his kidneys, causing them to shut down.

As for what started it all off. Tiny had been drinking tons of water for about the past month. We had Tiny at the vet about 3 weeks ago for his yearly checkup and vaccinations. They had checked his BUN and creatinine levels (BUN = Blood, Urea, Nitrogen) That's done by testing his blood and urine. At the time, there was absolutely no sign that anything was wrong. So he was given a clean bill of health.

Fast forward to sunday March 12th. Tiny slept in my room, and I thought it was strange that he was so restless saturday night/sunday morning. He also was not sleeping on his dog beds like he usually did. I had noticed that he'd developed a cough a couple of days before, but thought that was because he had jumped at a car while on his leash, and thought he might have choked himself a little.

We had a thunderstorm and hail sunday morning, something Tiny was seriously afraid of was thunder, he was really stressed...very clingy.

I went out with some friends to go to a car show and for dinner. I got home at around 11pm. My dad told me that Tiny had gone out front to go potty...after he was done he just lay down on the grass and would not move. My dad thought he was dead. So he used his cellphone to call my aunt Janice who lives across the street.

Tiny really loved Janice and her pug Pudge...Janice came over with Pudge and as soon as he saw Janice he got up and seemed to act alright. Janice went back to her house to get him some treats, and Tiny dragged my dad across the street. That was apparently Tiny's last true burst of energy.

Janice gave him a bunch of treats, which is something that I had not been letting Tiny have the past few months because I thought there was something in them that he was allergic to. So, I'm really really happy that Janice spoiled my dog a little bit that night.

I checked Tiny when I got home, and he was very shaky. I took him outside and he did his business but could barely stand up.

Around 5am monday morning, Tiny woke me up with his "I need you" cry. He was very thirsty. So I gave him some water...when he was done drinking, he laid down on the carpet. I could tell there was something seriously wrong so I called the vet. They were closed. I left a message.

I sat down on the floor and petted Tiny, and held his foot. I noticed that if I touched his stomach near his kidneys he would cough or start to choke like he couldnt breathe.

I started to panic a bit. I called the Doggy ER and asked if they thought he could wait to see his regular vet or if I should bring him to the ER. They said they were about to close and were discharging all their animals, but that I could bring Tiny in and they would try to see him. I decided to wait for his regular vet.

About 730, I got a hold of someone at the vets. They said I could bring him in at 930...I said ok, great...and then I loaded Tiny up into the car and set out an hour early.

I really started to worry when Tiny could barely climb into the car. I had to lift his bottom half into the car. I knew something was seriously wrong when I didnt have the drooling, yodeling, yapping and occasionally growling dog I normally got when taking a drive with Tiny.

I got to the vets office, and Tiny would not get out of the car. I got Dr. Ramm, Tiny's vet, to come help me out. Dr. Ramm had to pull Tiny to get him out. As soon as he was on the ground, I could see that Dr. Ramm was concerned. We had to help Tiny in the building, and I had to walk in front of Tiny and coax him into the exam room.

About 30 seconds into the exam, Dr. Ramm had barely touched him and he said that Tiny was in serious condition and that he was keeping him. Tiny laid down on the floor and started to cough. Dr. Ramm, another vet and a vet tech got a dog sling and put Tiny on it and carried him to the x-ray room.

Stuff gets technical there. They did x-rays, put him on an IV of Ringers Lactate, got an EKG (his heart rate was 260 beats per minute!! normal for a dog is 80bpm) They gave him medicine for his heart rate, took his blood pressure (that was all over the place) They carried him into a crate so he could lay down and rest and they put a catheter in to monitor his urine output.

Dr. Ramm thought Tiny had something called Addison's Disease (an adrenal dysfunction) and decided to treat him with a steroid to see if that would help. His bloodwork came back and there was nothing that strange on the BUN and Creatnine tests...the creatnine was slightly elevated, but not much. All his other bloodwork was normal.

Dr Ramm said he would continue to treat Tiny for the tachycardia (fast heartrate) and give him the fluids for dehydration and the steroids...he told me to go home for a bit and he would call me to tell me how Tiny was.

Later that afternoon, I talked to the vet...he told me that Tiny had not had any urine output thru the catheter, even though he had had FOUR units of fluids, and did not seem to be reacting to the steroid.

I'm pretty sure Dr. Ramm dumbed stuff down for me, because when I asked him to explain things to my dad (a nurse) he explained things in medical terms to my dad. I've taken a year of medical terminology for a certificate I've been working on in school. So I knew the definitions of most of what he told my dad. I might not have completly understood what it all meant, but I knew enough that he was telling my dad that Tiny was going to die.

I'm so grateful to Dr. Ramm for being such a good vet for Tiny. Tiny really loved going to see Dr. Ramm. The vet techs in his office were so nice and always good to Tiny...even when they were wrestling him to the floor during previous visits for vaccinations and nail clippings. So, I'm glad that the last person Tiny saw before he died was Dr. Ramm.

I got a phone call at 7am tuesday morning. It was Dr. Ramm calling to tell me that Tiny had died during the night. He explained that he thought it was not Addison's Disease, but that it was probably kidney failure, which he thought might have been caused by an embolism or something similar.

We're having Tiny cremated by Rainbow Bridge and should be receiving his ashes in a little wooden box with a metal nameplate with his name and birth and death dates engraved on it.

Tiny was only 9yrs old...old for a large dog, but I really thought we'd have him a bit longer (his dad Teddy lived to be 13 or 14yrs old)

I'm still in shock at just how fast things happened. If someone had told me saturday that my dog would be dead by tuesday, I'd have thought they were nuts.

TinyMonsters was a good dog...even tho he chewed on my bed, clothes, and important paperwork. He loved to sit outside in the front yard, watching his imaginary sheep and scaring the joggers running past.

He had lots of doggy friends, his best friend being my aunt Janice's pug Pudge. He loved walking with Pudge, Janice and me thru the neighborhood.

His main goal in life, other than driving me banannas was to someday catch the UPS truck. What he planned to do with it if he caught it I'll never know. (maybe he was expecting a delivery?)

His favorite thing to do was eat, sleep, chew on my bed, and sleep.

He thought everyone who came to visit us was there to see him, not the humans.

If someone was cooking in the kitchen, Tiny was constantly trying to trip you so that he could have what you were having.

If Tiny's a ghost and wants to haunt someone, I hope he's down the street at the neighbor's house, haunting the jerk who dumped 30 pounds of dog crap in our yard and Janice's yard last week. (30 pounds per yard)

We're planning on getting another dog in a month or so...a Yorkie Terrier (I hope) I just need to find a reputable breeder.

TinyMonsters

Bad bad bad bad BAD day.

My dog, TinyMonsters, is at the vet's right now. They're still not sure what's wrong with him...it could be an adrenal disorder called Addison's Disease, which is treatable, but they're not sure if that's it yet.

It could be pulmonary or cardiac in nature too...again they're not sure.

When I took Tiny to the vet this morning, Tiny was in shock and seriously close to dying...even I could see that. He could still die tonight. Hope he doesnt.

I'll post an update the next time we hear from the vet's office.

Tiny and me last summer in the front yard.

Perfect specimin of an aloof Bouvier

Not a bad first attempt at mixing two different hobbies

I like to do some basic sewing, and I LOVE to crochet...so I decided to try to mix the two. I think it came out ok. It's a very basic crocheted purse that I lined with fabric.

I've never sewn anything onto something that I've crocheted, so I wasnt sure how it would turn out, but here it is.

I used my Husqvarna Viking sewing machine to sew the liner to the bag. Took me a bit of time to figure out how to do that, and I made one mistake (forgot to change to white thread) but I think it turned out pretty good. The fabric is some that I bought when I used to work in a WalMart fabric department...I've probably got about 10yds of that particular print sitting in my fabric stash. It's made by VIP which is part of Cranston Prints. It's 100% cotton. The crochet cotton is also 100% cotton and I bought that at WalMart a couple of weeks ago. It's called Peaches & Cream and comes on a big cardboard cone.

Here's a look inside the bag

And another view

just playing with my camera some more...

Played around with the camera, using the 10 second time delay feature...took a picture of me and my mom with it. My dad was actually impressed enough that he wants me to email him the picture so he can get a print of it made at Walgreens... (he likes having someone else print it out...saves him ink and wear and tear on his printer)

here's the picture

Wow...my ancient digital camera is actually pretty cool

I was just playing around with my digital camera, which is a hand-me-down from my dad. It's an Olympus Camedia C-2000 Z. I decided to Google the camera to see how old it was (probably late 1998 or 1999 is when they came out)

I discovered that my digital camera has a 10 second timer on it (it also has a remote control, but I have no idea where the hell that disappeared off to...dad tends to lose things very easily)

So, what did I do when I discovered this 10 second timer? I took a picture of myself, naturally. I dont know where my tripod is, or if it fits this camera, so I put the camera on my jewelry box (it's about 4 feet tall) and then figured out how high to set my computer chair, and I took a picture of myself. I dont really like the picture all that much, but I thought it was cool that I figured this out...

Here's the picture (ignore the messy computer desk behind me...)

I also took a picture of the pineapple shawl I finished recently, so here that is too..

Just got back from Michael's yarn "event"

I went to the yarn "event" that Michael's Crafts had. It wasnt too bad. Sat and watched the fastest knitter contest...they had two adult women, and one little boy (the boy was probably only 7yrs old) One of the women won...the little boy came in second. He looked disappointed that they didnt have any second place prizes.

I signed up for the fastest crochet contest. They gave us Caron Simply Soft (I think) and said we could use our own hooks (thank goodness! they were going to make me use a Boye hook! ewww!) So I whipped out my trusty Susan Bates "J" hook. They had us chain 20 and then we sat and did single crochet for 10 minutes. There was only three of us. My hands shook for the first couple of minutes because I dont react well to being in front of a bunch of people, but that went away after a few minutes. I came in second. About 5 stitches behind one of the other girls. I had almost exactly 16 rows. I was one stitch short of exactly 16 rows...the girl next to me had 14 rows, and the girl who won was only 5 stitches ahead of me.

I probably could have contested the results, because I looked at the swatch that the girl who won did, hers was full of skipped stitches and split stitches, and it was curling in on itself and getting narrower (apparently she forgot to chain 1 at the end of each row) I decided not to complain, because the prize was a skein of some fuzzy mohair yarn and a scarf pattern. So I just decided that it was fun to do, and I came in second which is still pretty good. It still would have been cool to be the fastest, but it's not like I was competing against Lisa Gentry (the fastest crocheter in the world according to Guinness) or Lily Chin (who *thinks* she's the fastest...she never actually came close, but the CGOA still claims she's the fastest) The girl who won the contest looked pretty thrilled to have won, and I saw her in the back later going thru the yarn bins trying to find a few more skeins that were the same dye lot as the skein she won. Didnt look like she was able to find any.

I think I had more fun watching the 7yr old boy trying his hardest to be the fastest knitter... I felt bad that he didnt win

After the crochet contest was over, I went back to the yarn department and picked out a nice pattern book and used the 40% off coupon I got out of todays newspaper to buy it. ($1.93 for a pattern book! yay!)

I'm always happy to add to my pattern stash, and I really like it when I dont need to pay full price for the pattern. The book I got had 3 patterns for Pineapple baby afghans. I'd been looking at getting it for awhile. Later this week I'll probably head over to Hobby Lobby to get some Red Heart yarn (it's on sale!)

More projects done

I just finished another one of those pineapple shawls...It's done in Red Heart SS Heather Gray... I need to take a picture of it in good lighting tho...

I'm going to attempt another of the pineapple shawls...with a much smaller hook. My aunt Jan's 2yr old granddaughter Emma wants a shawl, and has seen the one that I gave to Jan for her birthday/christmas, so I've got to figure out what hook size will give me a shawl that a 2yr old can wear without tripping over it. Since the shawl pattern was orignally a doily pattern, I dont think it will be too hard to find a hook size that will work. I gave Emma a hat that I made from Dot Matthew's Bow's & Arrows hat pattern, and she wears it every time she comes over to her Mem's (Jan's) house.

I like making hats from Dot's patterns...I'm just not a hat wearer...my dad will wear them, but all the hats I've made so far are too "girly" for him. :)

Purple poncho

Here's a poncho I made in September 2005, but just this week finally sat down and wove in all the yarn ends. It's nothing spectacular...it's done all in half double crochet.

Granny Square pattern, with pictures (scene one, take two)

Edit #2 (late November 2006): I've noticed on several forums that a lot of people are using my rectangle granny square pattern. Seen the comment that people are worried about the long sides of the afghan narrowing while the corners on the short ends stick out. This is perfectly normal. Once your afghan starts getting bigger the weight of the afghan will make things even out. You dont need to do anything special to fix it.

EDIT: November 2006 -- I've found several of my pictures in other sites on the internet...I dont mind people giving out the LINK to my blog, but I do mind people lifting my pictures and claiming that the items in the pictures were personally made by them. (I think at least one picture was being hotlinked from my photobucket account. bad bad ju ju!)

I'll be gradually putting copyright info on my pictures, altho, it's probably a little late now...

**********

Here's hoping the power doesnt go all wonky on me again (and it could...there's a heck of a wind storm going on outside)

I had posted the pattern for the Giant Rectangle granny square pattern a few months back, but never got the pictures posted. So I'm reposting the pattern now, and I'll post the pictures below it in sequential order so that the visual crocheters can see how I start the afghan.

*+*+*+*+*

This is a crochet pattern that was taught to me by my late grandmother. I never had a written out copy of the pattern since I had it memorized. To the best of my knowledge, it's something she came up with on her own, and since the words in the pattern are mine, this pattern is copyrighted to me. Please do not sell the pattern. Some pattern designers dont want you to sell any item you might have made with their patterns. I'm not one of those... If you think you can get some money for a finished afghan you might make with this pattern, go right ahead, who am I to stop you...just dont sell my pattern to anyone.

Thanks to the people who helped me write it out and tested it for clarity for me.

********************

Rectangular Granny Afghan

Special stitches: (corner shells are 3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc)

Hint: when fastening off leave a long tail to be worked in later so the stitches won’t come apart.

Round 1:
ch 48

Dc in 4th ch from hook and next 2 chs, ch1 *sk 1 ch, dc in next 3chs, ch 1* repeat from * to * across (9 more times) ending with 1 dc in last ch. fasten off leaving a long tail to weave in


Round 2:
Attach new yarn in last ch-1 sp before the last dc. Ch 3, 2 dc, ch-1 in same sp, 3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc, ch-1 inside dc loop, working on other side of starting ch (3 dc, ch-1 in each sp across) until ch 4 loop (3dc, ch-1, 4 times in loop), (3dc, ch-1 in each sp across) joining with sl st in first dc.

Round 3: Attach yarn in first ch-1 sp of row 2 (ch 3, 2 dc, ch-1, 3dc ch-1 in same sp for corner, 3 dc, ch-1 in next sp, (3 dc, ch-1, 3 dc, ch-1 in next sp for corner) 3 dc, ch-1 in each sp across joining in ch 3.

Round 4: continue in pattern until size desired.

For more than one row of same color after joining sl st to the first ch sp and work in pattern.


********************

And now...the pictures :)

This is what it looks like once you complete the starting chain, and the First Round

And once you've attached the yarn for Round 2 (I like to crochet over the loose tails at the start of the afghan, helps me later when I go back to weave the tails in once I'm done)

This is how the increases should look

Join with a slip stitch (if not changing the yarn color, you can sl st in the next dc, and sl st in the ch 1 sp and then chain 3 and dc twice in the ch 1 space, ch 1, dc 3 times in the same space)

(note: I changed colors so you can see how each stitch looks from one round to the next)

And this is how it should look once you're finished with the Third Round. Once you get to this point, you should be able to follow the established pattern until the afghan is the size you want it to be.

You can pretty much make this afghan as big as you want. I've made crib sized afghans, queen sized afghans, and even a table doily with this pattern. I've always found it to be one of the easiest patterns for me to do, and one of the fastest.

Edit: January 2010

posting a picture or two of completed rectangle afghans.

In the picture with the Christmas themed afghan, there's a purple, white and black rectangle afghan folded on the back of the chair too..

The gray and red afghan at the top was one that I made for a cousin's kid, the patriotic one was one that I also made for a cousin's kid...probably the sibling of the first one, the one with the variegated red, white and blue is one that I made for a friend of mine. It was a scrap + a variegated color in between each color change, the Christmas one was for my grandmother...the purple, black and white one in that same picture was one I made for my aunt Mary, and the last afghan was probably one of my first scrap afghans. I made that one for my uncle Frank, who kept it in the sleeper cab of his 18 wheeler when he was out driving.

ARGH!!! Stupid power company!!

A few minutes ago, I was sitting here, happily updating my blog. I was just about to publish the pictures to my Giant Granny Square afghan pattern so that the people who are visual crocheters would have a better idea of how to do it from looking at the pictures...

Well...Guess what? Just as I was moving the mouse cursor to click on the "Publish Blog" button and the #%^&ing power went out!

ARGH!!!

It took me almost an hour to get everything looking good, and to upload all the pictures and such, and now I just have the makings of a really horrible migraine creeping up on me.

*cry* *whimper*

So...I guess it's going to have to wait till later...and I'll do it from my laptop so that if the power blips out on me again I wont lose everything to a power company induced reboot.

*grumble*

Pays to complain Part II

My mom's relatives always sends us a nice box of grapefruits and oranges for Christmas (thanks Sid!) and this year, we got something interesting and actually kind of funny in our box of tasty fruit.

My dad was getting my mom a grapefruit from the box the other day, and he discovered a perfectly peeled (and slightly moldy) orange...wrapped up in the green tissue paper they pack the fruit in. It looked like it had been peeled by a machine it was so perfect. I thought it was kind of funny, but still thought that the company might want to know. So I emailed the fruit company and asked if they were supposed to pre-peel the oranges, or was this an "escapee" from someone's lunch.

I got a prompt reply that, no, they dont pre-peel the oranges. They thanked me for my sense of humor and for informing them of the "abnormality", and now we're getting another shipment of tasty grapefruits and oranges. (Yum!) I love oranges, so I'm pretty thrilled that they've got such great customer service...my mom was excited...she gets to have Florida grapefruits for breakfast for just a little while longer.