Taking Care of Your Hands

If you're a regular crocheter or knitter then you know how important it can be to take care of your hands. Stitching for long hours every day can take it's toll on your muscles and joints, and for us unlucky ones it can develop into carpal tunnel or something else.

Regular breaks and stretches can help to alleviate any pain and even prevent pain from occurring. Even if you don't have a medical condition that affects your hands, stretching is vital to keeping your hands feeling good and the blood circulating.

Listen to Your Doctor

Now, I do have to say that these stretches are in no way a treatment or diagnosis if you are feeling pain. If you have already been diagnosed with carpal, or another health issue, please make sure you are doing what your doctor has told you.

This wrist exercise is something that was shown to me in occupational therapy. They really helped a lot. They told me to do them every morning and night. Now the key is to only give it a LIGHT stretch, not as far as it will go. Pull the thumb down until you feel it stretch lightly, and hold it for about 10-20 seconds.

Stretches


Here are a few more stretches that you can do every day. Try taking breaks between your stitching and do a few stretches. They don't have to be hard or take up a lot of your time either, just a few seconds a piece.

Picture Afghans on the Way

So my newest love, and hopefully items in the shop, are picture afghans! I absolutely love love love them. This is my first attemp at creating my very own from my own pattern so I'm really excited about it! Here is my progress on my first one and I've added the little pic of what it's supposed to be. Yes, I'm a HUGE Twilight fan and I can't wait to finish this one! It's 35% done and I can really see it coming together nicely!
Wanna try this sort of thing for yourself? There is a master of Crochet by Numbers named Todd Paschall and he will give you your first pattern for free. Visit his website for more info and tutorials.

There are also some awesome ladies who've adopted this method and created some free patterns of their own. Visit Totallee's Free Patterns for some Harry Potter and another Edward pattern. Also visit Tracy's Crochet for her Edward pattern.

Stitching for Charity

So I've always been a giving person and I love to create more for others than for myself! I've added a Charity page to the blog so that others can see what charity work I'm donating to and my progress. Of course I will be posting picks within the blog as well so you'll be able to see what I'm up to, but you'll be able to find more info on the Charity page. To get to the Charity page there is a link in the linkbar at the very top of the blog. Check it out for the charity that I'm going to work on right now! :) Are you participating in the charity as well? Feel free to send me pics of your work and I'll be happy to post them to the blog!

Crochet Pattern Terms of Use Change

Hey there everyone!

I've been super busy working on some new patterns for everyone and some new products to list in the store. While I've been doing this I've decided to go ahead and give permission to allow sales from items made using my patterns.

You still should never redistribute my patterns in any way, even modified versions without my permission.

You can sell whatever you make from my pattern as long as you give credit of the pattern to me, 7polkadots at http://7polkadots.etsy.com/  Two Little C's at http://twolittlecs.etsy.com. This includes both free and pay-to-use patterns.

Hopefully this will be helpful and better. Thanks for using my patterns and talk to you again soon! :)

Yarn Yarn Yarn

Today I spent a good portion of the day pulling out what yarn I had left from our shed. I hadn't crocheted in so long due to my carpal tunnel and I had even given away a good portion of what I had. After pulling out what I thought would be a few skeins I realized I had much more than I thought. I am glad that I'll some yarn to produce and some to use for pattern testing, but man I wasn't expecting it be this much. I really plan on getting away from my love for acrylic and going a more natural route with cotton and maybe even wool (if I can find a brand I'm satisfied with). Until then I will continue to create with what I have in order to offer customers a more affordable alternative. So I'm gonna get started on a few progects and we'll see if I can't update you guys without giving away too much! :D