Blankets and more

This weekend turned out to be all about blankets... at least until it wasn't, but that will come later. Since we never quite out of the negative digits today, it seems appropriate, huh? It started out because the forecast for this weekend earlier in the week was projecting horrible numbers such as -47 windchill. I wanted to be able to double blanket the horses if that was going to be the case, which meant I had to fix this.

These are two long seams on the front of an otherwise decent (and not inexpensive) blanket. The top picture is the far more significant tear, the bottom was fairly straightforward. I managed to get them all sewn up and repaired. They are not beautiful, but it should give me at least another couple of years of use out this blanket.

This is the repair of the top photo. I resewed the seam and then found tom webbing to make a cover. The webbing is not as heavy duty as the original, but it will be better than nothing. The cover at the top of the pleat is supposed to be leather, but I couldn't scrounge any from my studio, so I used a double layer of denim instead. It will serve the same purpose.

Here is the repair of the bottom tear. I was able to salvage and reapply the webbing on this one. 

I also sewed up some interior rips as well, so the whole blanket is in much better shape. 

After having wrestled this blanket for a couple of hours, I have come to some conclusions. A while back I bought a pattern for making your own horse blankets. I will probably never use it. First, as good as my sewing machine is, and even with heavy duty thread and a leather needle, repairing this was almost too much for my machine to handle. To really be able to good job with making a blanket, I would need an industrial strength machine. I don't really want to buy an industrial strength machine. Then when you add up the amount of material and webbing and hardware needed... well, I'm not going to complain about the cost of horse blankets, particularly this one. It was part of a large lot of various horse supplies that I bought several years back. 

With my newly repaired and usable blanket, the temperature has not dipped down quite so much as was predicted, so it turns out I don't really need it right now. It's still stinking cold outside, but the horses are fine with a single blanket, a stall, and a lot of hay and water. 

I also worked on some human blankets, which seem in comparison to be a walk in the park. I finished repairing the blanket I had started to repair a while back and made a gift of another blanket. (Shhh! The gift is going to be a surprise.)

And then my time of working in my studio was done with the wailing of R. from downstairs. Suddenly, here we are again off the rails. I had mentioned that we are increasing her seizure medicine. Well, I'm now beginning to strongly believe that it is this that is the cause of what we are seeing. I think there are two things going on. First, I really do think there is some accuracy in the idea of forced normalcy occurring. Today, she was sitting on my lap and suddenly, out of the blue, she was sobbing and telling me stories about what had happened in the past. This is a first. I can only think that with a decrease in neural misfiring that there are more memories coming to the surface. 

But I think there is something else going on as well. I am in a group for people who have PNES (psychogenic non-epileptic seizures). I find it interesting because it is mostly adults who are typically functioning except for the seizures. Listening to their experiences, I find they give voice to what R. cannot begin to verbalize. Well, today, someone posted asking about the same seizure med that R. is on (and the one we are titrating up on). She asked if anyone had experienced body-wide unpleasant reactions when increasing the dosage. You can imagine I immediately sat up and paid attention. Her episodes have correlated exactly with the second day of an increase. This is twice now. 

I have now dropped her back to last week's dosage and we'll see if we can stop this from being a second week of me sitting on the couch. (And yes, I'll call the neurologist, don't worry. She's used to me by now.) If the forced normalcy is correct, then the increase is doing something positive, but it seems it is also coming at a cost as her body acclimatizes to the dosage. I think we need to titrate slower. (No, I'm not a neurologist, but I'm happy to play one.) 

So there you go, the story of my life. Brief moments of productivity punctuated by long periods of sitting next to R. on the couch reminding her she is safe and she is loved and she is cared for.