KIDNEY STONES. what a pain!

[SallySue]

Prayers and good wishes go out to you, Shelly. I hope it makes you feel better to know that I had one painful episode with kidney stones several years ago and they have NOT come back since...

[seashells_Shelly]

My heavens, you are a busy lady. At my church I belong to the Social Ministry group and we are the ones who make up the tags and put them on the tree. Everyone whose name is on the tree gets a hat, scarf and gloves in addition to what is on the tags. Plus each family gets a quilt that our Cozy Comforters group makes (yes, I am part of that group also). We also donated 116 quilts that get distributed worldwide. When the report comes in from the national headquarters, we are all amazed at how much we distribute once everything is totalled. Although 116 seems like a lot to our little group, it's still part of the huge picture of how many lives are touched by each small or large church group. We meet the first and third Tuesday morning to make quilts and all are donated -- some locally and some to the worldwide needy. I haven't done cro-hooking and haven't heard of it. Is it like the Knook? I decided before I take on anything else I have to learn to do, I'm going to learn how to use my loom.....I will be trying to learn how to make a scarf (which is supposed to be easy). I am pushing myself to finish a baby blanket I am crocheting for a lady who should have had her baby this month. Then I will be making a prayer shawl for my best friend who is having cervical spine surgery on Jan 27th. I have some light green bamboo yarn that I will be using for that....it will be soft and just enough to take away a chill while she recuperates. I'll be staying with her and taking care of her mom, too, while she recuperates. Isn't it wonderful that God loves us and blesses us? HUGS, LOVE and PRAYERS, Shelly

[Susan2014]

Shelly My Angel Of All Things Good. You are amazing lady, sick and too tough to stay down to long. Sorry for Computer problem as I still have not gotten mine fixed. I seemed to have done????? Right? Hope & Pray Lady at Church has a Healthy Baby and Mommie is OK. A Large Family Full of Love. Your Friend I have Prayed a Special Prayer my Mom left in her Family Bible (I have it Now) I say this for Xtra Help Gods so Busy I have to be his helper as well as All Others. May you take Care of YOU my sweet friend your a Great person to go and Stay + helping her Mom. God Be With You and Friend & MOM. HUGS

[Jean Marie]

Hi Shelly,
Yes! It's wonderful that God loves us!
Cro-hooking is a long crochet hook with a crochet hook at each end. Once you have your stitches on the hook, you turn the hook around and slide the stitches to the other side and make a slip knot with a contrasting color and put it on the Cro-hook and then you'll have yarn to crochet with on both sides(the main color on one side and the contrasting color on the other side. You do 2 rows of 1 color and then turn your hook and slide your stitches and then do 2 rows of the other color so your product will be one color on one side and one color on the other side. The last square I did was with cro-hooking. Now I have 15 squares. You can google how to cro-hook. The crochet book I have tells you how to do it but I still needed to google it and watch how to do it on u-tube. It's not hard. I had gotten a flower loom from the store and made a flower and put it on one of the squares I made.

The crochet book I have also tells you how to do 'broomstick lace', 'afghan stitch', 'hairpin lace'. I've tried the afghan stitch before and it curled on me so I made it into the letter 'G' to put on the pocket of the sweater I was crocheting at the time for my niece Grace. Maybe I'll try it again sometime. I haven't done the broomstick or hairpin lace. I want to look on u-tube sometime to see how to do the basket weave stitch. You do a lot too! Are the quilts sewed? Are you following a pattern for the baby blanket? Did you start the prayer shawl yet?

I pray that your friend's surgery will go well, that the surgeon will have a steady hand, that there won't be any complications and that her recovery will go well also.
Jean

[MeerKat]

I always wanted to learn the broomstick lace, I think it is so pretty. But I can't even crochet now with my husband getting worse all the time. Maybe someday I can get back to crocheting, but think by the time I can my brain will be burned out.

[twinfaye]

Janice, is he getting worse physically or emotionally or both? I am still praying for him to improve and be nice to you. Always thinking of you and praying.

[seashells_Shelly]

Thank you for the prayers and good thoughts for my friend, Joyce. She is literally terrified to have this surgery but with the added problem of bone spurs hitting her spinal cord, surgery is necessary before she has a problem that can't be fixed. I have seen crochet hooks with a hook on each end and thought, "what in the world would you every use something like this for?". Now and I know and it sounds interesting. I can tell you that I truly love broomstick lace. I thought that was something I would never be able to do but I went to u-tube and watched Mikey of the Crochet Crowd and he made it seem doable - so I did it and fell in love with that stitch. I hope you find it as enjoyable as I do. As for hairpin lace, that is something I don't even want to try to learn at this point. The dear Lord would have to add more days to a week for me to try to learn something else. I don't know the afghan stitch either but someday I just might check it out. Thanks for the good info. HUGS, PRAYERS and LOVE, Shelly
As for the quilts, everyone takes turns doing different "jobs"....except the ironing - that's all done by me. Someone cuts squares, large and small, others sew them together, some make backs, we put a back on the "quilt table", pull up the batting, lay a top and just use crochet thread to knot the center of each square, pin the edge of the back over the top, someone sews that together and a quilt is made. We don't do hand quilting as we'd never get enough made for all who need.

[Granny Grunt]

I hope you are feeling better soon, I have never has Kidney stones but have a friend who gets them often and they hurt so much. Take care and rest.

[seashells_Shelly]

Hang in there, please. For about 10 years I couldn't even hold a crochet hook. I had one cervical spine surgery which made a wonderfully huge difference in how I was feeling and what I was able to do again but still did regain enough dexterity to do tasks that required holding anything like a pen, pencil, crochet hook, etc. That surgery was in 2004. In July of 2012, I had to have another cervical spine surgery. The surgeon told me after my first surgery that the next vertebrea and disc up (called the 4-5) was not good but wasn't bad enough to warrant surgery to the insurance company. So I knew eventually I would need another surgery. The second surgery was like a miracle....I can crochet again, tie my shoes, write my name, etc. I'll never get back all the brain cells I used to have before one dr who shall remain nameless, put me on some drugs that I have since found out are never supposed to be taken together..the reason he said was for the pain. Nothing he did helped the pain at all and I told him I felt like the meds were eating my brain. He told me to just keep taking them...I would be fine once I adjusted to the meds. That never happended. I went to another dr who immediately weaned me off the drugs, had me get an MRI of my neck and within 2 days of the MRI, I had my first appt. with my neuro-surgeon. That was the beginning of my road to recovery. So at 60 years old, I am as good as I'm going to get...I have a lot of frustration with not having the brain power I once had but my family has learned that I keep working at being the best I can be and now instead of fussing and worrying about me, they accept I have limitations and now it's usually funny when I say something that makes no sense to anyone but me; however, they are getting better at figuring out what I am trying to say....I know what I mean in my head but my mouth just doesn't say what it should....what a minor thing to deal with after what I have been through. Even a burned out brain can benefit from the comfort of crocheting or knitting. Even just the familiar feel of the yarn is theraputic. So, Meerkat, please hang in there....you have to take care of yourself or you won't be able to take care of anyone else. HUGS, LOVE and PRAYERS, Shelly