Monday, January 11, 2010

Not tatting -- but Important

A month ago my 8-year-0ld niece, Nicole, was diagnosed with Amblyopia. She is required to patch her right eye for six out of seven days -- every waking hour. Turns out she's allergic to the adhesive they use for stick-on occlusion eye-patches, and paper tape, and every other adhesive (though I admit we didn't try cellophane tape, it was a near-run thing).

My sister, Bonnie, made her a Pirate Patch with felt and polar fleece and a narrow elastic strap. That was cool for about 10 minutes -- then she peeked.

Bonnie found some felt patches that fit around and over her glasses, but they allowed light in around the edges. Then she cut a foam cosmetic applicator pad to put in the felt patch which kept Nicole's eye shut, but it was bulky and uncomfortable because it got too warm. She kept peeking or sticking her fingers under the patch.

These are her new patches. I am in no way related to or affiliated with
Anissa’s Fun Eye Patches
but, I do think anyone who has a child needing an occlusive eye patch should invest in these! Anissa's Fun Eye Patches have a lot of other patterns available, good for boys or girls. She likes these patches, and was excited to wear them. That was such a relief after the earlier patch problems. Nicole chose a pink and purple leopard print, a rainbow, some ladybugs, the flip-flops she's wearing in the picture, and a yellow blank one she can decorate. She's asked me to make a tatted eye for it. Fortunately, Jane Eborall has the perfect pattern. When it's done, I'll get Nicole to pose for you again.

LadyShuttleMaker Random Monday Mondo Giveaway

Click it! Quick, click it! Sherry's at it again -- Workbaskets, dontcha know!!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Among Other Things...

My dad has a really little Christmas tree with built in fiber-optic lights which he puts up on a drum table in front of the window. I made this little ornament for it out of a bit of left over thread. This is some of the thread my sister dyed for me.
I happened to have this ring in my tote bag, too. I wanted to try Jon Yusoff's idea of putting a small flower inside the ring, as well as decorating the outside. Hey! It worked...but I ran out of thread before I got to the fifth picot of the inner flower. I'd left a nice long tail (which was part of the problem) when I started, so I had to finger-tat it back to the picot and finger-tat the other end up to the picot. All the thread that was left was enough to tie a thread loop. Dad liked it, though, and we hung it on his little tree. It might still be there -- he made a wooden box to store the tree in and just puts it away decorated. Clever, huh?