Toward the end of last year I made a pair of fingerless gloves for a friend from some llama yarn she had acquired.
Her dog chewed one.
I fixed it.
The fixed one looks a little different than the first one, but once they are on the hands they look fine.
::whew::
A couple of years ago I knit a sweater for Ser Percival The Energetic.
It tended to slide down his body, as you can kinda-sorta see above, so he didn't wear it much.
Then Mischa The Rescued Dog got hold of it last fall and chewed up a section of the bottom ribbing. Percy's sweater was embarrassing for him to wear, so Younger Son brought it back to me to fix.
Poor Percy had to endure the brutally cold winter we have had with just his red sweatshirt. Cotton is NOT as warm as wool. I felt badly for the poor pup, but I had too many other knitted projects that were promised.
Until last weekend. I finished my cowl, finished mending the chewed-up fingerless gloves, and turned my needles to Percy's sweater.
First, using some matching sock yarn, I made an I-cord* drawstring for the neck and threaded it through the knitting.
This seemed to work to keep the sweater from slipping down his body. Success!
Tragically, I didn't take any before photos of the chewed-up sweater. What you see below are the after photos.
First, I threaded a US#1 circ through the row of undamaged stitches right about the raggediness. Misha had done a perfect job of chewing ONLY the blue ribbing but leaving the white stripe above it undamaged. What a smart dog!
Then I carefully unraveled the damaged section and machine-stitched the still-intact edges of the ribbing at either side.
Then it was a simple matter to pick up the stitches from the needle onto a US#7 -- what the original sweater was knit on -- and knit an inch of ribbing. After binding off, I sewed both ends of the new ribbing to the original. Close inspection shows that there is something weird about the ribbing in that one spot, but it is almost entirely on the underside of Percy's body**, so I don't think the pooch will have to be embarassed about any other dogs noticing the repair.
* Vicki blogged a few months ago about an I-cord maker she had acquired, and a light bulb went off over my head. Such a device would enable me to make the long I-cord for Percy's sweater in a few minutes! I put it on my Amazon wish list and eventually ordered it. Although it took Younger Son and I half an hour to figure out how to make it work, once we got it... we got it!
** I took some photos of the repaired sweater on Percy, but because of where the mended ribbing fell on his body, they all featured his little, er, pecker rather prominantly. You have been spared those photos.
