I'm a stay at home mammie of two beautiful children. A girl, Aoibhinn (pronounce as Ayveen), 5 years old. A proper little lady, since three months actually. Before that I was convinced she was a boy. But the princess phase has started and mammie is finally allowed to buy dresses, skirts and frilly things! She's the artist in the family, she loves to draw, write and create (especially with loads of sticky tape, tiny pieces of paper and yarn ends of mammie's work). And my boy, Aodhan (pronounce as Aydan), 4 years old. He's a proper boy, loves to rumble and tumble, crazy about his electronic gadgets, cheeky and has a good sense of sarcastic humor and gloating.
We live in Zaandam, Netherlands. Pretty town, with a chocolate and a cookie factory. You can smell the chocolate when you step outside. When they make strawberry cookies, the air outside is so sweet scented, you will gain 3 pounds just by breathing! We moved here a year ago. Before that we have lived in Ireland for seven years. My husband and I moved there in 2005 for a change of scenery and a different way of live. We loved living in Ireland. It's so pretty! But my husband got the opportunity to work for the same company in the Netherlands. And with the kids almost at school age, we decided to come back. We love having our families and friends close again, but sometimes we do get homesick for Ireland.
Another reason why we have moved back, was that we needed better help for my little boy. When he was 18 months he was practically deaf. He had so much fluids in his ears that he couldn't hear. It was like hearing under water. He had grommets placed and the hearing came back. But no sounds from him. They told us he would start talking within 6 months. When he was 2 he still didn't talk, only a couple of sounds and grunts. So we went back to the hospital and they put us on a waiting list. The waiting list was 18 months!! We tried to get help, but every one told us to be patient, he will talk eventually. So when my hubby came home with the announcement that we could move back home again, I jumped on it for Aodhan.
As soon as we were settled in our new house, I started calling around. The GP referred us to the hospital. We got loads of help, but not the correct help. Finally after 9 months we found the help he needed. He's going to a special school now, for children with severe speech and language difficulties. He's really happy there and is learning to communicate. He can hear and understand you, but nobody could understand him. He's learning sign language now, which he does brilliantly! And he has now around 10 understandable words. We had to learn sign language as well, Aoibhinn is very good at it.
At the moment we're going down the neurological path. He has had EEG's and other tests. Tomorrow is the big MRI and he has to go under full anesthetics. A bit nervous about that. His EEG's were clean, so we don't have to worry about that. They tested his IQ and that was high, but disharmonious. They're trying to convince me about Autism. But I'm refusing that at the moment, because he is a very social boy. He's very sweet with other people, he loves meeting new people. He doesn't look you in the eye, because he's looking at your mouth and hands to understand you. He's a dreamer and will daydream away during the day, but that doesn't mean he is zoning out. He loves to play with his cars and line them up, but that isn't compulsory or repetitive. He will go sit next to a couple of people on a bench in the park, because they're laughing and it looks like fun to him. He will ask to play with your phone even though you're a complete stranger. He will say complete sentences in sounds with the right intonation, but with no words. So no, I don't think it's Autism for now. We will see...
But getting completely off topic there. This blog is about me and my hobby, Crochet. I started learning crochet last year in August 2012. My boy is crazy about Angry Birds and saw an Angry Birds hat. Trying to find a nice hat was difficult. But I found some crochet patterns. So I bought a hook and some yarn, went on youtube and thought myself to crochet. I finished the hat and my boy loved it! But then he got into Starwars and wanted a R2D2 hat. So again, I sat down with my hook and started figuring out with help of youtube and the many tutorials out there, how to make him a R2D2 hat. In the mean time, I found loads of fun patterns on the internet, that I just had to try out. So I was making hat after hat. The girl next door wanted a hat, so I made her an Owl hat. Very popular in her class, so I had to make another 5 hats. So I spend my winter making hats for every one, trying out new techniques, putting together patterns of Spider-Man hats, for Aoibhinn's classmates, the Little Lady hat, the Two Tone Beret, the My Little Pony, Pinky Pie and Rarity Hats for Aoibhinn and her friends.
After making 3 Spider-Man hats I was done with it. I hated repeating the same pattern over and over again! I wanted to do something new. So I set up an Etsy shop with my patterns. This way I could make a bit of money to pay for all the yarn I use. I only make hats now per request. In the beginning I was feeling uncomfortable asking money for it, but I work hard for it and put in a good few hours. So I'm entitled hahaha
Hat season came to an end and I fell into a black hole. What now? No more hats until next winter? So I started playing around with Granny Squares and amigurumi (I always say arumigumi, I hate this word!). I made a few things, but nothing really WOW, iykwim?
It was March and I was at home looking out of the window watching the snow fall. Yes, snow in March, what the flip? Spring should have been here! And my window looked so gloomy and depressing, so I came up with my spring bird idea. It was a hell of a struggle to get the pattern to work, but it did! Proud!
I loved it, the birds were so colorful and cheery. They just light up my day every time I look at them. My sister in law had to have them as well. So I made one for her. Then my friend wanted one in the baby room, so I made one for her. It wasn't difficult for me to make another one, like with the Spider-Man hats, I liked it. So I wrote down the pattern and started selling it on Etsy. I also started selling on Ravelry. It was a hit! Yay!
My next idea was a Spring Tree. I blogged about it before. I started out with the idea of crocheting the leaves, but I had just bought these beautiful ribbons. So I used those.
Then I thought, I could crochet an apple tree for my other window. I love apple trees! I found this cute pattern of apples and pears online at PlanetJune and wanted to make a tree so I could hang these apples in it! But I couldn't find a pattern of the tree I wanted, so I started tinkering away. Setting it up, taking it down, setting it up again, until I had the base I was happy with. I just let it grow out of my hands and yarn and was surprised myself when I had the tree done. I LOVED it! But it didn't say apple tree to me. It screaaaaamed Yellow Ribbon. So I put a ribbon around it. I was so happy!
After that it slowed down in the crochet department, because I was so busy with the boy, getting him into the school, going to the hospital with him for all kinds of tests and preparing for the summer holidays. I started some other projects, Aoibhinn's Fairy, the broken clock, the little owls from RepeatCrafterMe. I made some flipflops for Aoibhinn, but writing the pattern was a pain, so it's on the to-do list for next summer! And I made the Chevron Skirt, that was fun to make, but a lot of work!
And now that August is back, we can start making hats again, YAY!!! So I started out with bang!
I washed the R2D2 hat by accident on a hot wash, so it's ruined! Aodhan needs a new hat and he fell in love with the Minions this summer! So I made him Kevin the Minion Hat! He loves it, but knows it's for the winter.
I also made some arm warmers, because they're just so cool! I will post the pattern soon on my blog as a free pattern. And also as a free pattern I will post the Minion amigurumi pattern soon.
So keep a close eye on my blog!
xoxoxo Patricia
PS: I promise my next entry will not be that long!
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