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At Kirkwood Knittery yesterday I came across some Malabrigo Super Bulky (both Gruesa and Aquarella) yarn in a rainbow of colors on clearance and I knew I had to make a log cabin blanket with it. Ever since hearing about my friend Kristin’s plan to make a blanket out of Malabrigo squares I was in love with the idea and after I discovered log cabin knitting from Mason Dixon Knitting I thought that a Malabrigo log cabin blanket would be great fun. Never mind that I went in firmly convinced that I was only there to buy needles for Ruth’s Kauni Cardigan (yes I first saw it on the Yarn Harlot’s blog and shamelessly jumped right on that bandwagon - the yarn is on its way over the ocean as we speak).

Anyway, the Malabrigo was soft, it was beautiful, it was bulky and would knit up quickly, and it was 30% off the original price. I’ve been going through a nasty bit of a self-pity phase and this perked me up right away so I threw all my previous resolve out the window and bought twelve skeins, two each of six different colors. I started it tonight and it is indeed knitting up fast. It is a thick and thin yarn and when knit up in garter stitch it has a lovely texture. I’ll post pictures tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’d already started two new projects for myself so this makes three on the needles. I think after my streak of knitting a birthday gift for my sister, followed by Mother’s Day gifts for my mom and grandma, then Mom’s birthday gift, and finally Dad’s Father’s Day gift, I needed a bit of knitting just for me. So I started some toe up socks using the eastern cast on method that is in the most recent issue of Interweave Knits. The cast on was awkward at first but once I figured out how to hold the needles to get it started I was fine. I have a new strategy to combat my apparent incapability to knit more than one item of the same size: I’m knitting them both at once from either end of the ball of yarn.

As you can see, the yarn is Tofutsies which I got in three different colorways on a previous visit to Kirkwood Knittery. It is a lovely, lighter weight sock yarn and it can go in the washing machine and dryer so it is my new favorite sock yarn. I also started up a lace scarf that I’ll post more about later. In the meantime, Mom agreed to model her new cardigan!

It really is the same length on both sides, the yarn is just so stretchy and I think it must have been sitting on her shoulders just a bit off. (Seriously, this is not a gauge issue denial thing, it was measured many times.) Here is what the back looks like, isn’t the lace lovely when it is stretched out just a bit?

Thanks, Mom, for letting me post pictures!

This post is a shout out to my local yarn store, Kirkwood Knittery, and the great women who work there. I’ve mentioned the store briefly before but not specifically by name. They have an email mailing list where they send out information about classes, yarns, sales, etc. and every time I get one I think, they really should have a blog and a website, it would be much more convenient. And then I started thinking, hey, I could build them a basic website.

So I mentioned that to the owners (Brooke Nico and Susie Kinsella) when I was there today and told them to keep me in mind when they decide it is time for their business to develop a website. So then they were asking about my blog and website and if I ever mentioned the store. I said not by name but yes. Susie said that out of town folks are sometimes confused by just where they are. What most people don’t realize is that, until recently, very few people who “live in St. Louis” actually lived in the city of St. Louis. The city was run down and there wasn’t much housing but there is a revitalization going on now that is encouraging.

In any case, there are a whole lot of folks who live in the suburbs of St. Louis. But if I told you I lived in Richmond Heights, you’d probably say, “where?” But St. Louis you’ve heard of and have a rough idea where it is on a map, right? Well, it’s the same with Kirkwood. It is a suburb of St. Louis and it has an awesome little yarn store called Kirkwood Knittery that started up recently. I discovered it soon after I decided to learn to knit again and loved it immediately. I visited another yarn store in the St. Louis area not long after that but Kirkwood Knittery felt much more personal and inviting and welcoming so that’s where I go. For those of you in the area, it’s at 10724 Manchester Road. Every time I’ve gone there either Brooke or Susie has been there (if not both) and they are very friendly and know their stuff. I’ve also met a few of their other employees, Naomi and Adrienne and they’re just as great.

So, for Father’s Day I decided to make my Dad some golf club covers. I looked at a few patterns online like the Window Pane intarsia pattern by Ann V. Gallentine and the Fairway Fair Isles on Knitty by Mary Edwards. And after my recent success with adapting a pattern for Mom’s Birthday Cardigan, I decided I’d just make up my own since I knew the basic measurements I needed. I decided to use some cheap Red Heart worsted weight acrylic yarn that I have from my previous and brief knitting stint before I had discovered that there is much nicer yarn (acrylic and otherwise) to be had. I figured that it would be perfect for golf club covers because it can go in the washing machine and dryer and it doesn’t matter how soft they are since they won’t be worn. So I knit up a swatch, figured out my gauge, wrote up a pattern and got started.

My first go at the set was a complete disaster. For one thing, I hadn’t payed enough attention to the Window Pane pattern or any of my knitting books for that matter, because I didn’t realize that intarsia can’t be knit in the round until I started doing it and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. The yarn was unpleasant to work with; it literally squeaks and just doesn’t feel good. And although the numbers were kinda funky I thought they were looking better and so I just knit away, trying to get all three done in about as many days. Here is what I ended up with (turned upside down to spare you the sight of intarsia in the round):

Same yarn, same needles, same number of stitches, same number of rows. I have no excuse. I know I’ve had gauge issues in the past. I knew the numbers looked funky but somehow I thought they’d even out in the end. I didn’t bother to measure or compare sizes because I wanted to get the darned things done and I’d swatched for goodness sake. Yes, I know, there’s a river in Egypt called de Nile. Stephen, upon viewing these three laid out said, “Uh, honey, which size are they supposed to be?” I told him they weren’t really supposed to be any of those sizes, they were just supposed to all be the same! It was at some point around then as I started frogging that I was muttering about the golf club covers and in my fatigue and frustration referred to them as “golf cluvvers.” That made me giggle and I decided to keep the name.

In any case I did a bit of research and found out why intarsia in the round doesn’t work. I decided to ignore row counts and just work on making them the same size. I got out some graph paper and drew up new charts for the numbers since I wanted them a bit more rounded than the ones I had found online. I don’t really remember at this point which ones got frogged completely and which ones only part of the way but some work was able to be salvaged. I adapted my pattern so that it would be knit in the round and then back and forth for the intarsia then rejoined in the round with just a small seam to sew up at the end. I had about four books on the coffee table in front of me open to their various sections on intarsia and how to add colors and twist and knit in ends and finally, two days after Father’s Day, I finished:

I think the 3 ended up a bit shorter than the others but not bad.

Up close:

And it sure isn’t perfect but I’m rather proud of the intarsia in the end:

I gave them to Dad tonight and he was thrilled with them. I was glad to hear that he approved of my decision not to put pom-poms on top. He and my mom were thoroughly impressed with the two colored knitting and self improvised pattern and I’m proud that I figured the darned things out in the end. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pack up my cheap squeaky acrylic yarn to drop at Goodwill.

After I wrote that long post about Meniere’s the other day, I got this email:

Annie, you have written a GREAT post. We are featuring it at our website. You are an example of what we believe a GREAT patient should be, for the reasons that we describe at our website. We sure do wish you well.

Regards,

Mark
MenieresInfo.com

What a surprise and an honor! Here’s a direct link to why the folks at MenieresInfo.com think I’m a great patient if you’re interested. When I was writing that post, I felt like I was indulging in self-pity and bitter anger - something I really try to avoid but I think is healthy from time to time. So it was quite a surprise that what others saw in my post are the positive aspects of how I have coped and continue to cope and it gave me a bit of a confidence and mood boost that I think I needed.

And then the comments started coming in. I’ve had a hard time in the past connecting with the community of Meniere’s patients that is out there. I’ve tried it, but too many times it made me feel more depressed and hopeless and I decided that it would be better for me not to participate. But hearing from individual people that my little rant meant something to them brought me back to the realization that I’m not alone in this.

Dobee and Eunah - thanks for your kind comments and support.

Dorothy and Brenda - do find out if there are more treatments options but go with your gut feeling if you don’t feel comfortable with a treatment. Try a new doctor if you’re not happy with the one you have, a neurotologist is best. Best of luck to you.

Tina - I understand where you are, I’ve been there. It’s easy to feel depressed and hopeless but you’ve got to get informed, get a good doctor, and make a plan. You don’t necessarily have to give up your dream but you probably will have to make compromises in many areas in your life. Don’t give up, if anything, it sounds like you need to get angry and start fighting this thing. Best of luck to you as well.

A while ago, a couple of people posted comments on Meniere’s-related posts drawing my attention to the Network for Good charity badges and the fact that you can choose the organization you want to support, make a custom badge, and put it on your website. The American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery is the one to support for research on Meniere’s Disease. I created a badge and put it on my sidebar. If you want to donate, just click the button and you can type in “Meniere’s Disease” where it asks how you want your money designated since Otolaryngology covers a lot more than just Meniere’s Disease. I know that my measley $25 won’t make a big difference but at least it feels like I’m doing something to raise awareness a bit and if a few other folks donate a little bit, it’ll start to add up. By the way, it is tax deductible and after you make the donation you’re directed to a receipt you can print and save.

So, that’s it for now on Meniere’s. I don’t like to dwell on it or ramble on about it but I wanted to respond to the people who commented and let folks know why there is suddenly a charity badge on my website.

Now, I really have got to finish up my Dad’s Father’s Day gift! I know, Father’s Day was yesterday, but I’ve been having gauge issues again. Pictures will be posted tomorrow once Dad has his gift.

I wanted to make something nice for my mom for her birthday. I knew it needed to be non-wooly or anything else remotely itchy and it needed to be able to go in the washing machine. I found the Spring Fling pattern on Knitty and decided I could make some adjustments and she would love it. She wears these lacey type cardigans a lot in the summer over a tank top. So I want to my local yarn store in search of the perfect yarn and, boy oh boy, did I find it. Nashua Cilantro is the softest, springiest, non-wooly and machine-washable stuff I could find. I fell in love with the yarn despite my concerns that it might not be quite the right weight called for and so I picked a color I knew she would love and was off.

I knit up a swatch like a good knitter and surprisingly enough had very few gauge issues with this project once I’d knit the swatch and knew my gauge. Problem was, it was significantly off from the pattern. I was getting 4 stitches to an inch instead of 6. I knew smaller needles alone wasn’t going to make up for the difference but I decided, hey, I’m good at math, I can figure this out. There was lots of sketching and dividing and multiplying and going back and forth between the pattern and my notes but I figured it out.

After the gauge change (and resulting mountainload of math), the next big adjustment I made was cutting the ribbing down to just two rows. I decided to make the body a little bit longer and as I got further along I decided to change the neckline too. I made it more of a scoop and less of a V if that makes sense. Believe me, all of this is easier than it sounds once you figure out that a pattern is just a bunch of math.

Next adjustment: the sleeves. I wanted them longer so I made them longer and happily seamed up the whole thing and realized that now that the sleeves were longer, they looked funky without any sort of taper to them. (Okay and one was an inch longer and wider than the other.) So, if my first go at seaming didn’t teach me well enough how it is done, I certainly have it down now after ripping out the seams, frogging the sleeves, doing them over with tapers, then reseaming the whole darned thing. I can seam top edge to top edge. I can seam top edge to side edge. And I can seam side edge to side edge. Also the sleeves came out even the second try.

Sew on a button and voila, Mom’s Birthday Cardigan!