The No-Good Scarey Sunday Night

I washed the Little Guy's Deer Sweater, which I have been knitting on for months, on Saturday and blocked it on a towel on the washing machine in the utility room, but since we keep the house pretty cool, it wasn't drying very fast.  So on Sunday I had the brilliant idea of putting it on top of the propane stove in the living room.  It's nice and warm, I often put bread to rise there or dry gloves or mittens. 

Apparently though, when I put the towel with the sweater on top of the stove, part of the towel and sweater hung down in front.  The front of the stove easily gets hot enough to severely burn.  I just wasn't paying attention - I had a bad cold which was making me kind of fuzzy headed - and everything was so damp that I thought it would just steam for a while and I'd take it off before I went to bed and put it back in the utility room.  So I was sewing in the computer room, watching a movie.  My husband had gone to bed. 

All of a sudden I hear the smoke alarm going off.  As I come around the corner of the kitchen, I see the top of the stove in flames and smoke starting to haze up the rooms.  I grab my favorite army surplus wool blanket from the couch as I run, and smother the flames on the stove with it.  All the while I am screaming for my husband to get up.  By the time he gets down the stairs, I've soaked the smoldering bundle in the kitchen sink and everything is fine.  I clean up a few bits of ash here and there and put all the ventilating fans on to air things out.  My husband praises me for my quick thinking (the scolding for being stupid comes the next day) and goes back to bed.  

I call my daughter.  Only then do I fall apart.  I was so scared.  The flames were so close to the curtains on the front window and if they had gone, I'm not sure the house wouldn't have gone with it.  It is an old house and the wood is very dry and seasoned.  Before I go to bed, several hours later mind you, I spray odor neutralizer everywhere to help get the smoke smell out.  Once in bed, I can't get warm enough to go to sleep.  I am sure it was a reaction to the adrenaline flood earlier.  My body was in shock.  Finally I get to sleep. 

Tonight I went out to the garage to check out the damage.  Here is what I found.  Everything is wet because I had it in a bucket.

You can see the edges of the towel all burned, and there are holes and charred parts in the blanket.  I'm not sure how much damage the sweater had.  It mainly looks like the ribbing at the bottom, which I guess I can fix if I can get the burned smell out.  I was going to just toss the blanket and the sweater, but my husband said to wash them first and see if anything can be salvaged.  I think he's thinking maybe I can patch my blanket or something.  I think it's going to be a total loss.  Meanwhile, I was estimating yarn amounts out to reknit the sweater.  I am just so thankful the house didn't burn down and I was able to catch it in time.  You can be sure I won't try that again!

~Jane

P.S.  After washing the blanket and the sweater, I think the blanket is a total loss.  But it looks like maybe, if I cut off the button bands and reknit them, and cut off the ribbing at the bottom of the sweater and reknit it, I may be able to save the sweater.  I have plenty of yarn left so that shouldn't be a problem.  I guess I'll wait and see what it smells like after it's dried.