Tag: numbness

New Crafts

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

I haven’t been able to do crafts since around November or December 2007 because my hands would get numb and I would even feel some pain when crocheting in my wrists so I was forced to give it up.  Not too long after that I was diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome after harping on my doctor every time I went 3 visits in a row.  He told me it’s probably carpel tunnel but sent me to a neurologist to get a proper diagnosis.

Ever since then I haven’t been able to do any crafts at all.  I’ve had to wear wrist straps every night to bed which helps for some strange reason.  Also not doing any crafts helped too.  I still type because I don’t feel that I can use voice recognition because when I do talk my voice is carried into the living room so nothing is private.

Since I haven’t been doing ANY form of crafts I’ve been going nuts.  Last week I picked up a crochet hook and some yarn and started crocheting.  I’ve actually done a good amount of a new blanket.  I went looking in my closet to see if I had more of the avocado color but instead I found these embroidery Christmas stockings that were given to me last year that I knew I couldn’t do.  I gave 1 a chance and so for the last 2 evenings I’ve been working on it and I have to say it’s not as hard as I thought they would be.  I’m actually having fun with it.

My left hand has been getting numb while holding it and my right hand was getting a little bit of pain here and there and so when I get the numbness and pain I stop for a while.  This stocking obviously will not be finished within the next week and half so I’m going to just keep working on it at my own pace and hopefully it will be done by next year.

There are 3 stockings (below) and I would eventually like to have them all done but I gotta do baby steps here lol.  1 at a time for now.

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Skill Going To Waste

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

When I was 17 years old and my sister found me in Simi Valley after being homeless for nearly a year and let me move in with her I decided that after seeing my first boyfriend Robert crochet that I wanted to learn how to crochet too.  I bought a couple of books about learning crochet and knitting as well as some knitting needles, crochet hooks and some yarn.

I learned how to knit but I never really liked and I learned how to crochet and found it was a lot faster to make something and I could read the directions easily and so I got hooked (pun intended) on crocheting.

Over the next 20 years I had made many pillows, blankets, lots of coaster, a sweater during the Rodney King riots and even a bed for my kitty.  But last year I had to stop because my hands would get numb after only a few minutes of crocheting.  I involuntarily gave it up.

Chips and his moms friend Julia had passed away after Halloween in 2007 and her niece was going through her house and found tons of yarn and gave the majority of it to me knowing that I crochet.  Well, I was very happy to get it all but I knew that I wouldn’t have much use for it anymore due to my numbness.  I wasn’t exactly sure otherwise I would’ve rejected it which would have meant it would all go to the trash which would’ve been a total waste of good yarn so I accepted it.  At Christmas 2007 I brought a lot of the yarn that I didn’t care about with me and gave it all to Chips niece and another family member as well as all these knitting needles and crochet hooks.

Well, even though I had a good 20 years of crocheting I’m not ready to give it up because I’ve been dying to crochet hehe.  Even though I know I shouldn’t do it because I don’t want to flare up the carpel tunnel syndrome, I’m doing it little bits at a time.  It’s not going to hurt if I do little bits at a time.

I just think it’s a total waste of a great skill because not a lot of men can or want to crochet.  Some men think that if they crochet they aren’t men but lots of men crochet like Rosie Grier the football player, my Uncle Ron who is probably the most masculine man I’ve ever met crocheted in his earlier years, the private detective on the tv show Pushing Daisies knits and crochets and they are always showing yarn on his desk in his office.  So it’s not a skill that is female specific.  But it is a waste of a skill if you can’t do it anymore.  I would’ve liked to be able to do it all year because that is usually the source of christmas presents from me.