Note-taking

The boucle yarn for Oceane arrived, and I'm re-knitting. I'll be honest -- ribbon yarn is not for the fainthearted, even with the boucle added in. Drop one stitch, and re-knit half your rows.

I also took the pink picot camisole out of the knitting bag, and frogged back to the border again. I'm determined to make this, if I can just work out the gauge issues. The challenge is to pick up the correct number of stitches without the body puckering where it meets the border. Normally when you pick up stitches from garter stitch, turned sideways, you pick up stitches between the purl bumps. When you have only 144 loops between the bumps and need 200ish stitches, this is a challenge. Note to self: think really hard about yarn substitutions for unusual yarns next time!

A generous prize arrived from Deb on the Web, who held a fund raiser for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation(CCFA)'s Guts & Glory 5K. Thank you so much, Deb!! Beautiful Koigu, which I have never knit before, an Italian Garden cookbook (inspirational even to me, who can only cook the plainest of meals), and a Crohn's & Me water bottle. Note to C&M promoters:  please make us a Crohn's/IBD & me pet water bowl...

...speaking of which, our IBD cat Charlie went to the specialist last Tuesday for his endoscopy. Unfortunately, his IBD has turned into small cell lymphoma. For reasons researchers don't understand, it does happen in pets but not people, though humans with IBD are more susceptible to colon cancer. Thankfully Charlie's is a slow-growing, treatable kind, and 70% of cats respond well to the medication, also used by human leukemia patients (Leukeran). Please go over to Noolie Knits and support her Walk the Night fundraiser if you are so inclined -- I apologize for the shameless plug and hope no one is offended, but I am mighty grateful to everyone these days who puts time and effort into raising money for treatment and cures of these diseases.

On a happy note, the B12 shots are going well. Charlie's coat is becoming glossy again, and he's been more his usual self, coming around for company. A few weeks ago, he would hide under the bed and only come out to eat. And boy is he eating!! No tuna are safe and the grocery store may put us on rations!! If he is responding to the treatment, his doctor said he should gain weight in a few weeks. I really hope he can fill out again. Note to self: I promise a photo when he does -- I think he'd be embarrassed if I took his photo right now. He is a little bony, and one of his paws is shaved from his IV. He's very proud and particular that way.

Instead, I will share this photo of sweet little E, who is wearing the seed stitch jacket I knit for her back in April:

It is an honor to see her wearing it. I know her grandmother, my dear friend H, is knitting her a wardrobe any little girl would dream of. Isn't it wonderful to share something we love, with someone we love? Happy Knitting!

Comments

[sprite]

I'm sorry to hear Charlie's condition has progressed, but I'm hopeful that it will respond to meds.

Regarding the camisole, what about just picking up the number of stitches that you have and then increasing on the following row to reach the number of stitches you need?

[Brigitte]

I don't envy you having to pick up stitches on a garter stitch row...ugh!

Oh, I hope Charlie will respond well to the treatment! I'm so glad the B-12 is working...poor little man.

[Susan]

That news about Charlie makes me wonder if one of my other cats didn't have IBD. She had bloody stool for years and her vet always pooh poohed it by saying it was from stress. When I took her to a new vet, she had lymphoma throughout her digestive tract, too much to be treatable.

So, I think Charlie is very fortunate that you are on top of this and catching while it's early enough, because we didn't catch it in time for my other cat. However, my guy who's got IBD now is under the care of an excellent vet and he does get his endos done, so if a similar thing happens, we'll catch it in time.

Good luck, Charlie, you can beat this!!

[Sarah]

Glad you are making progress on Oceane again with the new yarn! The sweater looks great on baby E!

[deb]

Sweet baby sweater - and baby!

[Sonya]

Your new yarn for Oceane is so pretty! Charlie is a lucky kitty to have people who are on top of his health and not just ignoring it. I bet you love seeing him scarf down the tuna!

[Shannon]

I'm glad to hear that some of Charlie's treatment is making visible improvements and the other treatment sounds promising. Give him a gentle snuggle from me. =)

[Julie]

Oh Debby, I'm so sorry to hear about Charlie's diagnosis, but I'm happy to hear it's treatable. I'm also glad to hear he's eating and acting more like himself. Give the little guy a hug for me.

[tiennie]

Great stuff! I'm sorry to hear about Charlie but glad he is doing well.

[Beth]

I'm glad Charlie is eating better, but I'm sorry about his lymphoma. I hope he'll do well with his treatment.

Your sweater looks so good on the cute, little model!

[Sydney]

Oh I'm sorry to hear about Charlie's lymphoma. Hopefully he'll be in that 70% that responds well to medication. It's good to hear the B12 shots are helping and he's getting back to his old self.

E's sweater looks so cute on her!

[Jessica]

So sorry to read about your cat. I do hope the treatment works!

[Devorah]

Glad the Charlie is feeling a bit better and happy that you are on top of his needs. Take care!

[Chris]

Oh, poor Charlie! I'm glad the b-12 is helping, but geez... Actually, one of the effects of celiacs cheating on the gluten free diet can be lymphoma. Talk about an inspiration to not cheat... What a fun prize to win!

[Felicia]

I'm so glad to hear that Charlie is doing better. I completely understand his need to wait for picture taking until he's looking his best.

Your seed stitch jacket in action is beautiful.

[lynne s of oz]

Poor Charlie! Hope the meds work on him....
WRT the garter stitch row pick up, I was reading in "No Pattern Knits" that to pick up on garter stitch rows, you need 1.4 as many stitches, which fits with your pattern pretty much. The book says pick up a stitch from ridges one and two, then in the ditch between two and three, then on ridges three and four, another pick up from the dip, and then on ridge 5. This means 7 stitches from five ridges of garter. Hope this helps! Can't guarantee it will though 8-\

[hege]

Glad to hear that Charlie is feeling more himself, though I feel bad for him that he has to take more meds. Poor thing.

[hege]

And I meant to add, your pink baby jacket looks perfect! :)

[Kyle]

here's hoping the best for Charlie.... it's a lucky baby to have a mom that cares enough to do all that you are doing! :)

on another note, I love your blog so I tagged you! go to http://kyleknits.blogspot.com/2007/09/i-have-been-tagged.html and see what I'm talking about - it's fun to learn more about people and you're really interesting to me... I hope you'll play along!