My sister-in-law hates all forms of gift showers. She has practically threatened our lives if we throw her one. She is having her first baby, after many years of complications, and is due in February. One of her friends had the gumption to plan a surprise shower, which was on Saturday. When this friend called me for invitation addresses, I let her know that my name was NOT to be attached to the event in any way, and did she somehow not know Rach’s feelings on showers? The woman laughed and said that my sister-in-law would NEVER get mad at her, and while most people couldn’t get away with it, she was somehow immune. Who am I? I’m just, you know, family, but whatever. No, it was funny, it just struck me as being a strange thing to say to someone’s relative.

Ok, moving on… Because you are all very aware of my inability to be content with someone else’s pattern, as well as my inability to make anything easy on myself, you should be not at all surprised to learn that I made up a hat.

Awwww. Yes, it’s cute. There are of course some problems with it. First of all, my math and my gauge accurately produced a hat sized according to the pattern I was referencing. It was 16 inches around, which seemed big, but silly me trusted the pattern. Then I tried the nearly finished hat on an 8 month old, and saw that it fit perfectly. At that point, I was upset to not have trusted my instinct. What do I know? I haven’t knit baby things. I am completely unfamiliar with their sizing. Seems to me that a baby hat pattern ought to have a better idea of the size of a baby’s head than I do. Guess not.

Secondly, because I wasn’t satisfied with many elements of the first pattern, I was also stealing elements from a second pattern, and was using a heavier yarn than was used in either pattern. This made for lots of math, sour stomach, and chore neglect.

And finally, this hat was a first for me in many ways. My first time crocheting an edge. My first time using duplicate stitch. My first earflaps. And the first baby hat I’d knit in YEARS. Hopefully, it will also be the first baby hat that fits right, but I’m not holding my breath.

Rach’s husband is way into lizards. I made an attempt, as I said earlier, at duplicate stitch, and this is what happened.

Sometimes, I look at it and it’s cool. Sometimes, it isn’t particularly recognizable. I didn’t take it as a good sign when most everyone squinted their eyes as they brought it closer to their face for examination. Oh well. She seemed to like it. I told her I could remove the lizard if desired. And if nothing else, it should fit the little guy well next fall. My only consolation is that if I HAD knit the hat exactly as the first pattern suggested, it STILL would have been too big, and I’d STILL hate the silly little earflaps they were using.