Does your sweater need dog tags?

Picture this: you’re working diligently on your latest project, which just might be a kit from a well-known designer that set you back some real $$$. You’re about 9 inches along and visit a coffee shop to knit with your knitter homies. Then, you get home and realize you left it at the coffee shop. You call, but it’s not there. Did you drop it on your way to somewhere? Did it fall on the ground as you shut the car door? The heartbreak of not getting back a project that you have put a lot of time and money into (or even “just” the time) is not to be thought of. That’s why I went to Pet Smart the other day to the “make your own personalized pet tag” machine and made a dog tag for my sweater and other projects of the future.



The cost for the tokens for the machine (which you buy from the cashier along with the little split rings for attachment) is $6.50 for two tokens (the non-gold colored kind) or $8.50 for 3 tokens for the gold-toned metal kind. Not cheap you say? Compared to a couple hundred spent for a kit – not so bad. But wait – there’s always a way around paying a lot. I’m a huge fan of going to Fed Ex/Kinko’s and laminating small cards for my wallet. You could print out a page with circles, hearts or dog tag shapes for you and all your friends and put “If found, call whosit at 206 whatsit” on 3 lines to fill up the shape per the picture above. The people at FedEx Kinko’s will be happy to show you how the laminating machine works. Cut out all the shapes and spread them evenly inside the laminating sheet, so that after lamination you can cut around each shape leaving a laminated margin of at least ¼”. If you just laminate the whole sheet of paper, when you cut out the shapes, they won’t hold together unless the plastic of the laminated sheet is pressed to itself around each one. Punch a hole at the top of the shape (leave enough room for this when you are making the shapes) and you are ready to tie them on. Use the split rings if you have them, or tie on with yarn. You don’t want to stretch out any stitches, so tie them on the edges of the project, at the bottom of a steek, or anywhere it won’t pull on the main stitches. So the tag can be seen easily, copy your original onto neon pink or chartreuse colored paper. Voila! You now have your best chance of getting your baby back if it goes walkabout!