Unforeseen Complications

Last week, I showed you the trial glove for the request I had gotten... 

Today, I totally planned on having the final pair to show off. But things didn't go according to plan.

I bought snaps for the closure on the wrist as that's what the pattern called for. I had the bright idea to finish up both wrist bands and sew on the snaps before finishing off the rest of the glove. This was a brilliant move, but not for the reasons I expected.

See, the snaps did not work.

They looked sloppy...

And when you unsnap them, well, they work, but they feel like they're going to tear off.

It's really hard to show this in a picture, but if I could hand this to you and have you unsnap the snaps, you'd see what I mean.

I tried crocheting a bit more on the ends, but that didn't help. And while I started thinking about what to add to reinforce the snaps, I realized that this was way too much work for something that was supposed to be an afterthought at the end of the project.

This is why trying this now was brilliant. I would have lost my mind if I had finished two whole gloves and the snaps didn't work.

Using buttons was suggested. It meant I had to start over, because I would have to put a buttonhole in the wrist band. But as I hadn't gotten much further than the wrist band anyway...

Ah, much better! Of course, that means that I spent Saturday redoing wrist bands rather than finishing gloves. And that means I have no finished gloves to show you (as they haven't been finished yet). But there's always next week.

* * *

And finally, one month short of a year ago, I shared my sister-in-law's GoFundMe with you all. From that post:

Heather, my sister-in-law, was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in April 2012. She has an aggressive form of MS, and she needs help for her best treatment option... (Go here for the full post.)

That took her to Panama in July of last year. Since then, I've been trying to get her to do another interview to update you all as to her progress, but with one thing and another...

The GoFundMe has been updated this weekend with what's going on right now...

Short version:
Heather’s health has rapidly declined over the past 4 months. She is currently back in Panama getting another round of stem cell treatments. She’s been there for a week and will be down there for a total of 3 weeks.  

Full update:
February was 6 months from the stem cell treatment in Panama. A routine MRI was scheduled to keep tabs on Heather’s progress. When she got a call from her doctor and was asked to come in for the results, we knew there was a problem.  

The MRI showed that she still only had the one lesion on her pituitary gland, but there were indications that something much worse was ahead. What her doctor saw was the precursor to something called Schilder’s disease. This is an extremely rare type of MS that has only been diagnosed in 99 people in 100 years. Heather became number 100... (Go here for the full update.)

If you could share Heather's story with your social networks, they would greatly appreciate it.