Scarf Repair OR Crazy Cat Lady

A friend from Minneapolis asked me if it was possible to repair a hand knit scarf she had made that one of her cats had gotten into. Shelley showed me a photo with a chunk out of the middle of the side. She is not an experienced knitter, and did not have any leftover yarn or did not know where it was.

I offered to undo the damaged part and then graft together the remaining rows for her. Shelley was happy with that idea, so I picked up the scarf from her during our next trip to the cities.

In addition to the ruined section on the side, there was a place where a piece of yarn was still attached but had gotten pulled way out. You can see that in the next photo.

My friend is not someone you would think of as a Crazy Cat Lady, but there is a back story about the cat situation she finds herself in now. In the summer of 2021 Shelley was included in a ladies weekend at our family cabin with some friends from high school. During that time a stray cat was hanging around the cabin. We do not normally see cats outside in our neighborhood so it was unusual. This cat was very thin and looking for food and attention. We first noticed it when it climbed up the outside of the cabin and was looking in the kitchen window. I did not want to encourage the cat to stay, so we did not offer it any food, knowing there were plenty of mice and other options outside for a cat.

I like cats. We had a Siamese cat when I was growing up, and as an adult our family had two cats for many years. But I had visions of the time when I was in middle school and my family went camping. A stray cat hung around our campsite and that time we did give it some food. Later the cat wanted to come inside the tent. It must have been very cute and persistent, because we let it in. During the night the cat threw up all over our sleeping bags. I don’t remember the rest, but I am sure my mom was not a happy camper.

Back to the time with my friends in 2021, the stray cat kept coming around, visiting cabins and homes all along our side of the lake. The next day my group of friends was having dinner at our house about a third of a mile from the cabin. We were enjoying time on the deck which is above a walkout basement. The cat climbed the lattice from the ground level up and on to the deck. My husband Wayne was there standing in the doorway from the deck to the living room, with the door open, telling us to make sure the cat did not go in the house. The cat slipped inside the house as he was saying this. Everyone laughed and laughed. My daughter happened to be home at the time and she was easily able to pick the cat up and bring it back outside. Shelley was very concerned that someone was neglecting this cat, or more likely it was a stray, and she wanted to bring it home with her. The other people in the group all thought that we needed to make sure it did not belong to someone. After the friends all went back home, I made inquiries over the next few days.

Meanwhile, Wayne noticed that there were two kittens with the cat. They were very skittish and would not let him get close. A few days later there was only one kitten. Two weeks later we had not identified an owner and Shelley still wanted the cat. We were able to lure the mother cat into the garage easily, and the one remaining kitten followed her in. We got the two cats in a carrier and a box, and I took them to the humane society so they could check for a chip and make sure the kitten was old enough to separate from the mother. They did not have a chip (not surprisingly) as they were probably barn cats. I left the kitten there and Shelley drove three hours from the Cities and got the mother cat.

Shelley was in for a surprise about six weeks later when the mother cat had four kittens in her house! Her daughters said they would take two of the cats but that never happened, and other offers to take a kitten also fell through. To this day she still has all five of the cats.

One of the these five cats ate Shelley’s scarf, probably the one that also likes to shred up toilet paper. Fixing the scarf was pretty easy. I ripped out about three rows rows of knitting that were damaged, and then grafted the two halves of the scarf back together using kitchener stitch. I had done kitchener stitch before, but on something that was knit in stockinette stitch (knit one row purl one row). This scarf was knit with garter stitch (knit every row). I was not sure if kitchener stitch was the same for garter stitch, but I found several youtube videos showing what to do. It was slightly different, so I am glad I checked.

I put the live stitches on needles with the purl bumps facing me and laid the two halves together, according to the instructions.

Kitchener stitch is worked with a yarn needle and length of yarn, weaving the yarn in and out of the live stitches following a pattern that mimics what happens when you are knitting. In the next photo I have joined about one third of the stitches, moving from right to left.

The following photo shows the rows completely joined. I put a stitch marker on the joined row so I could identify where it was. If you did not know, you probably would not be able to find it.

I also gently picked at the yarn on each side of the loop of yarn that had gotten pulled out until it was close to back the way it was supposed to be. The next photo (sorry for the poor lighting) shows the scarf back in good shape.

Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of what to write or getting a blog post to come together. Other times like this one the words flow out of my head faster than I can type them. I was happy give Shelley’s scarf a second life, and it was fun to reminisce about that summer cabin time with my friends. I wish all blog posts were that easy!