Bassets and Knitting...or...How I learned to Put Away My Knitting

My birthday present this year was this adorable basset, Leonard, who we adopted from the North Texas Basset Hound Rescue Society.  He is a very young 2 years old and a joy to have. We are not new to the joys of basset bliss as we have had 5 other droopy drooling wonders during our marriage but the last time was 6 years ago and I was not ... (gasp)... a knitter. Yes, it is hard to believe but at one time I was not the passionate knitter that I am today.

Here is my story and the lesson I learned.  I had grown bleary-eyed knitting the black cabled seminarian for my son and had put it aside in favor of knitting something for myself.  I decided on the lovely Summer Treat Cardi and  would make it with Jaeger Roma yarn in my stash.  Thus, I could virtuously justify my starting a new project as I would be destashing!


I cast on and then I heard the washer stop so I placed the skein and the needle on my chair while I went to put the washing in the dryer.  When I came back  I discovered that Leonard had unwound the skein throughout the living room so I renamed my project  “Leonard’s” Summer Treat Cardi in his honor as it was obvious that he approved of the yarn (angora blend).  Fast forward two weeks and the cardi is coming along nicely when disaster struck.  You would have thought I had learned my lesson but I didn't.  Having knitted past my bedtime the night before, I had stopped and instead of placing my precious cardi in my knitting bag, I left it on the coffee table.

A little background is necessary before continuing my saga.  To say Leonard does not like getting bathed or dried with the dryer does not even begin to describe how he reacts to the sound of a hair dryer but the groomer had suggested we work with him at home.  So.....I was drying my hair and kept shutting off and talking to him while he sat in the doorway of our bedroom and whimpered.  I swear only a few minutes had passed when I looked up and he was gone.  In the space of a few minutes he had got the cardi off the table and managed to chew my addi turbo needle into 4 pieces and snarl up the project. I came out to find the cardi hanging out of both sides of his mouth and the stitch counter on the floor chewed into unrecognizable plastic pieces. I really couldn’t blame him as I was the one that left it out instead of putting it away in my knitting bag. I frogged about 5 inches and cut off all the slobbery bits and  managed to get it back onto another needle. I finished Leonard's Summer-Treat Cardi and learned a valuable lesson about putting away your knitting if you have bassets in the house!