The Curse of the Black Purl, or, Arrrgghhh! The Horror!

Thanks for all your kind comments and knitterly concern regarding my treatment at the hands of the local LYS. Thanks also for the encouragement on the We Call Them Pirates hat.

As I stated in my earlier post, I started the hat on Friday, September8th, and finished it on the following Sunday. Yes, two days. Very fast knit.

Anyway, the whole project started badly with the black Telemark yarn I ordered from Knitpicks. After I placed my order, I got an email saying that particular batch of black Telemark was recalled because of a failure to perform a final rinse of the yarn, which could result in bleeding colors. Well, we don't want that! So I waited another week for a replacement to be sent.

I have to add here that I absolutely hated the Telemark yarn. Both the black and the white were very splitty and scratchy. Even though I was using the supposed bleed-free black, my hands still ended up stained black every time I put the hat down. And the area mauled by my dog turned a dark gray from the black bleeding onto the white.

But I am getting ahead of myself!

I finished the hat, and, despite my best efforts at a swatch gauge before starting, the hat was too small for its intended recipient, my husband. A cursed project, indeed.

On Tuesday, right before I left to go to Knit Night at the library, I discovered that my dog, Annie, had been proceeding under the misconception that the hat was a chew toy. Seriously. The culprit's photo is at right. Note the evil glow in her eyes.

Now I have a gash in the rim of the hat that looks utterly unfixable to my eye.

Luckily, there's Knit Night, so I took the injured hat with me, but no one there was able to offer any suggestions other than, "Just do the best you can with it." (But I appreciated the sympathies and commiserations!)

So that's what I did.

Repair site, inside:

Repair site: outside:

I did the best I could with it, as advised.

Since it's too small for my husband, I decided to give it to my nephew, the only other pirate devotee I know:

This experience has not dampened my enthusiasm for the pattern though. I have already ordered enough yarn to make TWO more hats, including a pink and green version for myself. No Telemark this time though!