Get to know me!🧶🥄

Hi! Thank you for checking out my website, my name is Ally! I am 18 years old and have been crocheting for 10 years of my life! Here's how hooks n spoons came to be! I have been ill since the age of 4, when I had the majority of my small intestine removed due to two large tumors. I was left a short gut kid for life and told I wouldn't live longer than five years. Although I've relied on various feeding tubes and treatments I was beating all the odds put against me. As a middle schooler my illness was well managed and didn't hold me back very much. It wasn't until my early teen years I started to experience a variety of problems unrelated to my short bowel syndrome. Despite the medical neglect and gaslighting I experienced for far too long in the end of 2020 I was diagnosed with a trifecta of chronic illnesses that had left me completely disabled and scared for my future. There was no way I could get my first job like my peers at that time. So I decided to take the risk and open a Etsy shop. My best friend and I brain stormed all day for a shop name that tied in my passion for chronic illness advocacy and crochet. We finally decided on hooks n spoons! Hooks for crochet and spoons for chronic illness. You can check out my FAQ section to learn why spoons are used to represent chronic illnesses. It is now 2022 and I can't believe I'm here with my own website. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the amazing online communities supporting me through everything. Being undiagnosed and mistreated by the medical system is terrifying. It's my goal to not only bring inclusion into my art using medical devices in my plushies or chronic cuddlers but to also use my art to raise awareness for chronic illnesses and the mistreatment that disabled people face everyday. I have donated a lot of chronic cuddlers and other plushies to charities like the Ronald McDonald house in Omaha who lovingly helps families just like mine and to child life in Nebraska med. if you'd like to help me be able to afford to donate more chronic cuddlers check out my FAQ section. Thank you for supporting me, my passion and the ability to work from home and care for my health.