A friend asked me if I could fix a beanie knit for him by someone else. The body of the hat is intact, but the ribbing seems to have been chewed in several places. Possibly moths?
I happen to know that the yarn used is Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, and I have some in my stash, not the same color but one that would coordinate well.
It seems like I should be able to unpick the ribbing, pick up the stitches, and knit a new ribbed cuff for the hat, at least in theory. I have never done anything like this before. Is this possible? How would you recommend doing this? Are there any pitfalls I should watch out for? I am pretty sure the hat has sentimental value to my friend, so I don’t want to ruin it.
Oh, you are a good friend!
When you pick up the stitches to work down you may have a little weirdness where the garter changes to the diagonal pattern, and the diagonal will not line up to the rib as it does now - but, it will be wearable again
A couple of other thoughts before you get started. Put the beanie (all of it) in a ziplock bag and leave in the freezer for several days - this will kill any critters (often too small to be seen). I would do this twice to ensure all are dead before proceeding. You can definitely pick out the border back to the seam. There are two ways to approach the new knitting 1) once back to end of border you can pick up stitches from the start of the hat and knit downwards (hat to border) if your stitches are stable. Another choice would be to knit the brim and then attach back to bottom of hat portion. I have done both to fix something. If you go hat to brim the stitches will be in a different direction that the hat to top of hat - just a reminder. Good luck,
