That is one of my favorite knitting projects of the last couple of years, the Koigu Linen Stitch Scarf. It is a 450 stitch scarf, cast on lengthwise in fingering weight yarn, and it was 3/4 finished. I had planned to finish it by today. Instead, it was severely wounded in an unprovoked attack. It was in a plastic bag inside a tote bag, in the living room, and I'm quite sure it wasn't talking shit to anybody. I went out to the grocery store for, oh, half an hour, forty minutes? I came back to this:
I did not pose her like that. I walked in the door, dropped my grocery bag and purse, and just stood there in horrified shock, then began yelling words like "BAD DOG!" She walked toward me and stood under the yarn she'd strewn around the room, and I couldn't help it - the camera was on the end table, and I had to capture this.
Even she appears impressed by her own handiwork. The yarn was everywhere - I really wish I knew how she got it under the ottoman and then all around the rest of the room. One of the three colors in the pattern rolled to safety under the TV cabinet, and I was able to rescue it unscathed. The other two...I sat on the floor and untangled yarn for...hours. Then I spent more hours backing out the ten or so rows of damaged knitting, which would be, what, 4500 or so stitches? I saw no way around it. We're talking 80-100 dropped stitches (I didn't have the stomach to count) in varying states of droppage. It was easier to back out those rows and start over than figure out how to pick up that many inches of screwed up linen stitch. It's easy enough to screw it up while knitting it; I couldn't begin to figure out how to pick up those rows, even if it had only been a couple dozen. But it wasn't. It was the whole middle of the scarf.
I did it. Call it a freaking Christmas Miracle, but I backed out all the damage and got back to a clean, undamaged row, and can start forward again. Of course, had I been knitting FORWARD for this time, the damn scarf would be DONE.
Well, I bought that pattern after you posted it the other day, and I can 100% commiserate with you! It would be a daunting task to pick up all those stitches. I've only gotten a few rows done myself.
ReplyDeleteNow, Sophie, listen up. You may be as cute as they come, but you are seriously pushing Mom to the edge. What, you say? She leaves it out there, so tempting and easy to get to? Makes no diff. You leave the yarn alone, no matter how much it calls to you.
Oh wait, yarn calls to me too.
OK, then, just remind Mom to put it up someplace high when she leaves. Even if it's only for a few minutes.
Kimmen
It was in a bag, folded down in another bag, which, I admit, wasn't zipped and secured with a padlock. My knitting has been at that level of security since she joined the family last Memorial Day Weekend, and it wasn't until recently that she expressed any interest - but boy, when she did, it was quite spectacular!
ReplyDeleteMaybe she likes the smell of knitting after you've been working on something for a long time? Maybe she can sense value?
ReplyDeleteI would totally crate her whenever I left the house. Freedom is a privilege for naughty canines! We have a pretty bad dog (mostly just gets into trash) and when he is crated, he lets everyone know about it. Lucky for us we live on 5 acres.
This is her specific naughty thing - she hasn't done anything else to rate crating (and I do have a crate standing by). I think it's on me to keep my knitting in a zippered bag - lead her not into temptation!
ReplyDeleteOh, that look on her face is priceless--poor puppy--and poor you! I don't envy you at all, but good on you for recovering your knitting so well.
ReplyDeleteBasie will totally ignore things and then decide to grab them every time you turn your back, which has led to him being crated every time I leave the room (overkill, I know, but really, he's a mess). I also keep him on a leash in the house, but he now catches the loop end in his mouth before he runs away from me, so that doesn't always work (ha!). He has his good days and bad days--today was not such a good one. He's gotten into my knitting once and chewed up my fav Lantern Moon dpns, so the knitting has been locked away for a while. Now he's starting to eye the spinning wheel (sigh)....
Oh. Oh my. I. Oh my. Well, you handled that probably better than I would have. Poor girl. She probably had such a good time and then the look on your face when you got home. I keep my projects in a zipper topped tote bag. Just in case.
ReplyDeleteThat is so funny! She is one industrious dog. She really does look guilty. Glad you were able to save the project even if it meant ripping out many rows.
ReplyDeleteBostons! I had one once who would rearrange the furniture. All the throw pillows on the top of the bed, in the bedroom, mind you, were mysteriously in the living room -- underneath the sofa cushions which were on the floor and accompanied by a good-sized footstool that had been in the den!
ReplyDeleteBostons are a riot! Kind of like a "bring in the SWAT team" riot at times, but often just so creative and funny, you get mad but not TOO mad, because you're too busy marveling at "How the hell did she do it?" Sophie has never actually destroyed anything, and other than untangling knitting she's a saint by Boston standards. Dudley chewed off a chunk of my house.
ReplyDeleteHow can you get mad at that little face? Okay, it was a hell of a lot of work on your part. But Sophie worked hard too - that took a lot of creative effort, and she SO enjoyed it. Ha! Priceless.
ReplyDelete