Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Bad Dog!

About a year ago a friend of mine was admiring my hat and asked if I would make one for her. Let me tell you... flattery will get you everywhere with me... so I made one for her. Here's the in-progress picture (somehow forgot to get a picture of the finished hat).


It's two skeins of Nashua Wooly Stripes, basic roll brim hat. Nothing fancy, but pretty... and it matches a scarf one of her other friends knit for her. She loves the hat, wears her hat... it looks great on her.




Over the summer friend got a puppy. Cute puppy, smart puppy. Puppy broke out of her metal-barred kennel! Yesterday I got a call from the friend, she was a bit distraught. Apparently puppy developped a taste for wool... wool hats in particular. My friend asked if she thought I could fix it... I told her to bring it in and I'd see what I could do, no promises. Well, she did.





Sensitive knitters should look away... it's pretty graphic.









From what I can tell the main gash is about 9-10 stitches wide, about 21 rows high. The smaller hole goes from the cast on edge past the row of purls I did to end the curl - about 10 rows total. For what it's worth, the hat is about 100 stitches around, probably on size 7 needles. I have a little of the yarn left... not enough for a new hat... and I don't think I could match the stripes even if I tried.

So knitters... what do you think? Is it worth an attempt to salvage? I thought maybe I could do a little steeking of sorts, sew down a seam a few stitches away from the damaged parts, then try to seam it together? Alternately I could some how try to bind off the stitches around the hole, pick up some stitches along the top part and sew a flap down- kinda like the pony-tail hat on Neither Hip Nor Funky's blog. I'm not sure if anything will really fix it though. Anyone want to advise me on what I should try... or if I can't - a way to break the news to her?

12 comments:

Michael5000 said...

This post brought to you by the American Cat Owners Association.

IrishGirlieKnits said...

Oh no! Oh no!! Just can't look!!!

Bezzie said...

Oh man, I think you're boned. I say reknit her a new one out of similar colors and knit a dummy acrylic one for puppy.

atet said...

Umm...maybe break it to her like they do in hospitals? I'm sorry, we tried everything possible but there was nothing we could do. Offer to knit a new hat if she buys the yarn?

Mag said...

She needs a new hat. OR, and this is a big OR, you could frog that yarn, spit splice the dead ends and re-knit the hat, using your left overs to cover in necessary yardage eaten by the dog.

I vote new hat. And just tell her flat out. Peeps really need to be able to handle bad news straight out forward. It's just a hat.

Rebel said...

M5K - unfortunately cats can do plenty of damage in the knitting world. Fortunately when given the choice between playing with yarn or sleeping on a warm lap, Sally chooses the sleeping every time.

Irish girl - It is painful isn't it.

bezzie - that dog is getting *no* toys from me!

Atet & Mags - your right, I think I just need to tell her she's out of luck.

Anonymous said...

How about a cute sewn fabric patch that's really obvious in order to look intentional? The puppy has good taste.

Rebel said...

Melissa... I kinda like that idea, I was thinking of maybe something like an intarsa puppy face or similar. I'll think about it.

Eryn said...

Oh Noes! I don't have anything useful to add - just my commiseration.

T is said...

I like the patch Idea, I think it could look really cute, and not just like you were trying to cover something up...

Batty said...

Patch. The only thing I can think of that'll cover that hole. I'm sorry.

Zonda said...

Bummer! That was a nice hat!