I recently crossgraded from a Silhouette Cameo 3 to a Cricut Explore 4, because the Cameo is pretty weak at cutting and the Explore can cut any kind of shrink plastic I throw at it.

But the software. It's not just the worst graphics software I've ever used, it's the worst software I've ever used period. And that's saying something when you consider I've been using computers for nearly four decades, and used them creatively for about three. I go back to MS-DOS, baby. One time I used a 3D renderer that ran from the command prompt, no GUI at all. Nothing compares to the horror that is Cricut Design Space.

I'll probably go on a rant about it when I have time. Right now I'm struggling to get my printer to not spray ink all over and make sure to keep the print inside the area the Cricut can see since it doesn't allow you to specify custom material sizes.

An assortment of critters I made yesterday and today: hippogriff, snake, amphiptere, and hippocampus. I gave the snake to my mom because she really liked it. I think she liked that snake more than anything else I've crocheted!

I made the Giant Purple Griffin, but tiny. For some reason.

You can now choose a unicorn, pegasus, or alicorn from my random draw amigurumi horses! Not limited to fantasy colors of course, anyone can be anything.

Thinkin bout adding a unicorn/pegasus/alicorn option to my random horse amigurumi listing. It will cost extra of course but I kinda want the option to be there.

I've talked about HPP here before, but I haven't talked about treatment and goals. When talking to my doctor about it, I mentioned DDR and how I felt that wasn't a reasonable goal, that I'd be happy just not dealing with paralyzing exhaustion anymore. I can't wait to show him this video.

Some more Known horses, in order: Black Beauty, Gold City, Gold Ship, Daiwa Scarlet, Aston Machan, and Vodka

Some more Known horses, in order: Black Beauty, Gold City, Gold Ship, Daiwa Scarlet, Aston Machan, and Vodka

Two new tiny amigurumi patterns are available now: goat and horse!

I don't think I posted any of the Gold Ships I made, so here's the only one that has the hooves the right colors, plus a Haru Urara.

I wasn't originally going to make the random Etsy horses look like specific horses, mostly because the ones I've already done have been Japanese racehorses and they're only identifiable because of their racing masks. But I dig subtle references and while the recipient might think I was just being random by giving the grey horse black hooves only in the front, I'll be giggling because it's Gold Ship.

Amigurumi horses are back in stock! You'll also soon be able to make your own, as I've written the pattern and it's currently in testing.

October 30th is World Hypophosphatasia Day, and since I have HPP I decided to release my hippo amigurumi pattern for free! Rare disease in general is often represented by zebras, but for HPP it's hippos.

Written in American terminology, you will need basic crochet skills for this pattern. It uses double trebles for the ears, but I included instructions for that. I also included a new method I came up with for making legs, though if you don't feel like doing that I also included instructions for making a popcorn stitch which is simple. In the above picture of two hippos facing each other, the one on the left has popcorn stitch legs and the right one has the other method.

Download on Dropbox

Finally got Tuliyollal and Alexandria's flags made! It took a long time partly because I couldn't find a good reference for Alexandria for a long time.

Remember kids: exercise is simply exerting yourself, whatever that means for you. It doesn't necessarily mean imitating athletes and pushing yourself beyond your limits. That will actually do more harm than good.

I haven't been able to exercise at all for about 20 years, and even before that I was limited by undiagnosed hypophosphatasia. Now that I'm getting stronger thanks to treatment, figuring out what I can and should be doing for exercise has been a trial of its own. I've had to unlearn some unhelpful ideas about what "counts".

The good news is that a year on Strensiq and figuring out how to keep my B6 levels balanced has given me an almost-normal energy level, and I've been more active and have been riding my ebike a lot. The bad news is a couple days ago I beefed it on a ride (I was barely even moving), and skinned the heck out of my knee.

I'm not a spring chicken anymore, healing is more complicated than it used to be. So I've put my shop in vacation mode for a little bit so I can focus on resting. Already placed orders will still process as normal though.

Trainer badge pins are here! This one took a bit of effort to research because the design doesn't appear in visuals much. I'm pretty pleased with it!