Kiss My Knits!

The hubby sent me a link to a news story about a giant pink bunny.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1541732.html

It looks like something got lost in translation with the “knitted by dozens of grannies out of pink wool” bit, though. Gelatin’s website says “as if knitted by giant grandmothers” which throws its methods of construction into doubt, at least for me.

I won’t get into the “knitting grannies” stereotype, but I will say… that’s one huge rabbit.

Believe it or not, I do actually get orders for things besides Jayne hats. Right now, I’ve got a dinosaur hat coming up in the queue. The one in the picture is made from Lamb’s Pride worsted, which is a blend of 85% wool and 15% mohair. It has to be handwashed cool, or it’ll shrink like crazy. Example: This is made with Lamb’s Pride worsted: Before and after a couple of washings. You can’t tell in picture two, but it’s sitting on a kid’s chair and is now about 9″X12″, tops. This was deliberate, but you can imagine if something made of this accidentally got tossed in with the laundry. Yikes.

So here’s the dilemna. I’m pretty sure the guy buying the dinosaur hat is 16 years old. Possibly 15, but I think 16. I am really unsure about sending a hand-wash-only garment to a 16-year-old guy. I just *know* it’s going to get ruined. And while I am fine with the idea that once it leaves my hands, it is out of my control and no longer mine, I would just hate for this guy’s hat to get trashed by accident.

He says he wants it to look like the one in the picture, earflaps and ties and all. I am toying with the idea of using a different wool, one that is superwash (meaning it can go into the washing machine). But it wouldn’t look exactly the same. The superwash wool has a couple of strands together, like this while the Lamb’s Pride is a single, with one big strand like this.

So do I keep it the same and just really hammer home the care instructions, or do I try to save him from himself?

Opinions?