The Yahweh in Him Met the God in Me

Newly referred oncologist Mark Levandovsky, MD, is a smart cookie in more dimensions that I will ever know.  He certainly read me well on our initial visit, handed me tissues without fanfare, kept direct eye contact, was kind in his manner while being straightforward, and did not overload me with information. 

When I told him I would not fight the metastasis to the bone via tooth and nail, just wanted to be kept comfortable and keep the cancer at arm's length as long as possible, his response was exactly what I wanted and needed to hear. His yarmulka stayed pinned on his head while my silver cross was caught in my reconstructed cleavage. He listened, he heard.

His reply to my questions as to how we would treat this without going overboard in loading up the system with toxic drugs (this cancer will never be eradicated, hence cured), Dr. Levandovsky said he would treat it with "this and that" and if this and that did not provide relief or slow down of growth of tumors, he said he would treat it "with the other."  He sensed I did not  need to know specific effects of seven syllable oncologic drugs, nor would I remember their specific names even five minutes later.  He just knew that I was leaving the specifics in his hands. The analogy is that he and God are taking care of all the details.

This morning I go in for patient education on oral daily drugs.

My anxiety is under control with drugs and I have slept much better the last couple of nights.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  As for me, it is good to be near God.  Psalms 73:26

All those chemo hats I have been crocheting will go to the oncology unit.  Here are two finished last week.

and another Bellatina...

Crochet Bowls, Again

Simply, I cannot get enough kale crisps, cashews, chocolate bites, or crochet bowls.  Luckily, the bowls have no calories, albeit they are addictive once one gets cotton yarns in hand. These bowls I make all the time from a pattern similar to this one on Ravelry, holding contrasting colors of yarns together while doing a single crochet.

Seed packets from friend Carol, who encourages good gardening habits for Mesa Manor.

Mr. Bear, above, was a gift from Auntie to Julie while in hospital.

Several have been given away, and did not have the opportunity to display themselves to my camera before going off to new homes.

These were made in February of this year:

Yarn Bowls in Crochet

My friend Mrs. Tittlemouse, whose name comes from a Beatrix Potter character, is quite a crafty gal. She wrote about making crochet bowls on her blog here.

Being one to follow the leader, I was spurred on to copy her in trying to make similar ones.  Mrs. T's are prettier, but mine came out OK, too. Using these instructions for a crochet bowl, I made two different sized bowls.  This is a smaller one:

And this is a larger crochet bowl:

I sorta cheated on the second bowl, making it larger and without a pattern, but it worked out just fine. It is now holding yarn.  See?

Mrs. T. uses beautiful pale pinks and lavenders and and celery greens and cherry reds, her favorite colors I think, for her crochet and sewing projects.  Her pictures make me happy just gazing on them. Please take a look here at the lovely bowls she made.

I am going to use the larger crochet bowl as a roll basket on the table at Easter because the colors whisper spring to me.

Irregular Square Afghan

Never having been a big fan of acrylic fiber, except for the fact that it washes quickly and dries just as fast, I recently ordered a batch of acrylics from Lions Brand to be used on a new project.   I am anxious to start an afghan called the Irregular Squares Afghan, a free crochet pattern available on this page with colors chosen from an extensive palette of colors offered online.

This is a snap of a finished afghan, courtesy of Lion Brand.  I am not interested in the colors it was worked it (in fact, yuck), but I like how it is put together.

Each of the six squares making up the afghan not only is comprised of four separate colors, but each square is also put together differently, hence the irregularity of the pattern.  If not ingenious, it certainly will hold one's attention while constructing the 30" x 45" throw.  Here is the pattern for just one of the squares:

Now the fun part (for me) is selecting colors to match the decor of the area where the small throw will most be used.

This is a collage of the colors in our living room, including pictures of furniture, paintings and accessories. It lacks the brick red color of the entry wall and all the green plants, but you get the idea.

And here are the colors of the acrylic yarn chosen from the Lion's Brand palette that will be used for the project.

If this works up as quickly as others tell me it will, maybe I'll get cracking on a second one as a gift.

Here are two of the squares worked; each square pattern is worked three times, and then put together in an alternating fashion:

Update: 2/27/2012
Finished but not completely happy with this project as the squares are not completely "square" and the overall look is not tight.  It is warm, however.  I will give it a month of wear before giving it a final rating and deciding whether to crochet this again as a gift.

Bag with Crocheted Hexagons

Loosely based on this pattern for making a shopping bag, and borrowing from this pattern on Ravelry for a hexagon blanket, a new project bag was born.

See the toy ferret and bunny rabbit?  Those belong to The Amazing Therapy Dog Libby, but I actually plan on filling it with a sweater project and swapping yarn for the toys.  Its strap is a knitted icord, and the bag itself is two pieces of coordinating fabrics sewn back to back, folded in half, and seamed together.

Several weeks ago, I was making hexagons from sock yarn, but did not have enough sock yarn scraps to make an actual blanket.   Instead of chucking the project, I used the 20 multi-colored hexagons as decoration for the bag front.  Bling was added in the form of buttons and charms.

The little sheep buttons in the middle of a couple of hexagons make me smile.

Stained Glass Blanket

Crocheting hexagons from left over sock yarn has become my new comfort needle art project.  No need to think, just watching the magic come out of my crochet hook, almost like "creating lace in the air", like my SIL Charlotte once said.  These are the hexagons I've made thus far:

After a gadzillion of these are made, they will all be put together in one color jewel toned yarn that will hold all the little hexagons together from an independent yarn dyer (maybe from Sweet Clement on Etsy).  I'm thinking of getting this color BFL yarn:

Another blogger friend, Kepanie, showed her blanket on her blog, found here.  She always has beautiful photography, so please visit her site and tell her I sent you!  Here are Kepanie's hexagons:

An here are a few hexagons made by pennywenny:

If you like video podcast about knitting, don't miss Sheila and Wendy's Knit1HeartToo show.

There are many patterns where crocheted hexagons are detailed.  If you click on the "R project button" below, it will take you to Jessie's pattern.

From Crochetaboutdotcom, here is an easy way to crochet a hexagon:

Starting Chain: Chain 6. Join with a slip stitch in the first chain, to form a ring. 

Rnd 1: ch 3 (counts as first dc), 2 dc in ring, (ch 3, 3 dc in ring) 5 times, ch 3, sl st in top of beginning ch-3 of this round. 

Rnd 2: sl st in ea of next 2 dc, sl st in ch-3 sp, ch 3 (counts as first dc), (dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in same ch-3 sp, * ch 2, skip next 3 dc, (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in next ch-3 sp **, repeat the directions between * and ** 4 more times, then ch 2, skip next 3 dc, sl st in beginning ch-3 of this rnd. End off. Weave in ends.

Preemie Hats - Let's Make Some!

From a blog called Calvin's Hats, the purpose of creating tiny baby preemie hats is summarized here:

Calvin's Hats is offering to grieving parents a gift which can bring a small amount of comfort and peace... a hat tiny enough to fit right on their precious child's head and something to hold on to when their child is no longer here.

Our wish is for these hats to bring a small amount of healing."

A couple of weeks ago, Raveler Annie said this:

When Calvin's Hats first started in February of 2009, it was with the hope that we could provide some hats to families who were leaving the hospital with empty arms. We had one knitter (Sarah DuVal) and a website with a limit of 3 pages. We were sending out one or two hats per month and thrilled to be blessing those families.

About 6 months ago, something changed. I'm really not sure what it w as that spurred it on, but our goal of getting hats into hospitals was finally working. Since that point, we've sent out a large number of hats. ... but never once has my hat drawer been completely empty. I don't suppose tiny knit hats can really compare to the Bible story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread, but that's how it feels sometimes.

If you want more information about Calvin's Hat , Annie's blog can be found here, along with some easy preemie hat patterns.

Here is my first finished hat that took only 90 minutes to complete.  It would fit on a tangerine.

Chemo Hats and Interpreting Sickness in a Unique Way

This is the second one off the hook:

The same pattern of crocheted hat finished this week from this free Bernat pattern:

Here is another:

These hats are, of course, for my daughter Julie.  Julie had her first chemo treatment this week, along with the requisite anti-nausea drugs.  After three days post treatment, she is still not keeping anything down. Sigh.

And speaking of sickness and how we deal with it, I am borrowing this from Abigail at Abigail's Alcove:

...When I found out that my newborn needed emergency abdominal surgery, I immediately asked to have her baptized. If my baby girl had to undergo all of that suffering, I wanted it all to mean something. I wanted her incorporated into the mystical body of Christ. I wanted her hurt to save souls.

A birth defect is different from the ordinary effects of sin. My baby girl didn't get hit by a bullet or poisoned by an environmental toxin. The Creator of the World, the One who lovingly knit together my baby's body in the womb decided in His infinite wisdom to drop a purl stitch in the formation of my baby girl's intestine.

Futher reading can be found here by Abigail about her infant daughter's sickness.  It is well worth the read, and gave me pause after digesting her interpretation of why this birth defect happened to her child.  I hope you take the time to read it.

Chemo Cap to Crochet

Ironically, sadly, three chemo hats are still in my cedar chest that my mother used during her cancer treatment in 1999, and that I saved because they reminded me of her.  She was not a complainer, and always grateful for whatever the day held.  I do try to emulate that quality, though sometimes it is a challenge.

This is my mom and me in 2000 just before she died, wearing one of her favorite hats covering her little bald head:

Then, lo and behold, wouldn't you know that I then had the "opportunity" to use those same hats, and especially the one shown above on Mom, when I went through chemo.  Yup, it is so.

And now my daughter will be the recipient of these useful little garments to keep her head warm after she loses her hair due to chemotherapy.  Three generations of women with cancer: bing, bing, bing.

Never fear, she won't have to just use those old hats (even thought they are quite attractive and still functional).  I am making her a couple more with crochet and knitting needles.

Here is a pattern I came across this morning: free, free, free and easy, Bernat offers this chemo hat as a download with a (also free) registration to their website:

As a quick update on Julie, she has been diagnosed with Stage III B breast cancer, and will have her chemo port placed on May 23.  They are trying to shrink her tumors prior to a mastectomy.

The chemo cotton hat will be started today as I listen to Frank Delaney's Ireland on audiobook.  If you are on Ravelry, there is an audiobook group and a podcast group that you might check out; this group has excellent suggestions on good listens.  I'm currently listening to several books on tape, depending on moods and inclinations.

Now I'm off to Michael's as soon as they open to buy three balls of cotton yarn so I can snuggle down for a good session with Ireland and my hooks and needles.

Crochet: Laptop Bag with Six Layer Padding

You know how Sandra Lee uses prepared foods and makes them look like a lot of prep time went into it, supposedly fooling her guests with a delicious end product?
This crochet project was done along the same lines, using a few things that were on hand in the craft closet and finishing it off with a handmade smaller project.  The end result looks like an expensive purchased laptop case,  IMHO.

Start with a $2 canvas tote from the craft store for the middle lining...sandwich that between the outer crocheted "public side" of the laptop bag and the fabric inner lining.  Then add in some pretty fabric for lining and attach a key ring for personalization.

The recylced canvas tote had sturdy handles, so they were disassembled and covered with matching fabric and zigzagged onto the bag (one is hidden and only attached to one side of the bag for ease ofloading the laptop into the jacket).

Directions for making this 9" x 12" cover:

• chain 95 stitches of cotton yarn with Size E crochet hook
• double crochet contrasting complemenery yarns in rows to your liking (I crocheted 4 rows, 3 rows, 4 rows, 3 rows to a length of about 23 inches, turning and changing colors at whim at the end of the rows).  Now you have a little piece of fabric that looks like a doll blanket.
• fold over the finished crocheted piece of fabric to make a (roughly) 11.5"x 9" product; single crochet edges together
• create lining using canvas and pretty fabric, right sides together, sewn together leaving the ends open, and pressed with a steam iron (only 1/3 yd. of fabric is required)
• sandwich the canvas sturdy lining between with the pretty fabric lining cut to 23" x 9" to create a 6 layered, cushy pad for your laptop.   Add a finished fabric binding to the top of the tote to cover the raw edges.
• create fabric covered straps from the canvas tote by sewing fabric atop the handles and turning the fabric over with 1/4 inch edges, tacking down with blind stitches
• add a purchased key ring with charms to finish off the tote

Note: some assembly is required (grin)

Crochet Sue and Ophrah

Do you crochet?

(from Craftzine)
Sue would be cool at my play station.

Hey! Granny Square Afghan Finished

...and I am not even a grandma!

In all its glory:

The husband does not like all the colors.  And I can just hear my mother saying "...if you would make one in off-white and beige, it would look better with my decor"...  But I like it because it makes me happy.

Granny Squares Galore

Having chosen nine different colors of yarn that roughly mirror the colors in the painting previously posted here, granny squares are being crocheted.

This free pattern for a granny square afghan requires 30 granny squares with dimensions of 9" x 9". So far, I have 14 finished.

A few pictures of some completed crocheted squares:

Then the question of how to join them together comes up. How to do this?

Mikey knows! (method 1, the single crochet, is the favored method):

saga to be continued of Granny Squares Galore...