Warm heads

My Uncle Ry is deploying to Afghanistan in a few weeks, and I wanted to make him something before he leaves. Preferably something heartfelt but also useful, as opposed to, say, a knitted coat hanger. I found a helmet liner pattern and cast it on Monday night. I got the six inches of the neck done and was all ready to take it to my knitting class to have help with the face opening when my friendly neighborhood whirling dervish  decided to attack and stitches were irreparably damaged. Now I must redo the 6 six inches of neck tonight seeing as class is tomorrow morning. Plus I have all my other homework which I have very uncharacteristically put off until tonight (HA).  I have this dream that the whole thing will be finished by the time we visit him, which is 2 days away. And then maybe it will go so well I can make a bunch of them and send them to other soldiers. We'll seeeeeeeeeeee.

I AM A LEAN, MEAN, KNITTIN' MACHINE.

I finished two more hats this week! They are of the same variety as the first one but with different yarn that is lovely because it defines the stiches so well and it's striped without any work from me. This hat pattern is now my fallback Christmas and birthday gift, everyone I know is getting one this year. It only takes one skein (ball) that has happened to be on sale at Michaels for the last week so each one is about 3 bucks to make. This is music to my school-is-eating-me-alive-how-am-I-going-to-get-a-paying-job-and-I-barely-have-money-for-gas-and-insurance-but-must-feed-yarn-habit ears. These things are wonderfully fast to finish, yet still nice and personal. I love it. I am churning them out. I am a hat factory. There is no stopping me now. Pictures to come. If you care, which I'm sure you do, because who wouldn't be innately fascinated with my hat escapades. Now, what you really should look forward to, if you enjoyed Shakespeare's Macbeth, is the story of my foray into the sock making world. Tears and blood, my friends, tears and blood.

Finshed, Almost Finished and Work-in-Progress.

CAN'T STOP.

MUST KNIT.

MUUUUSSSTTT KNNIIITTT.

HAT=FUTURE

I started knitting this hat on October 26th. I finsished the ears flaps and body on the 31st and then the pom-pom and braided hangy-downy things on November 2nd. Picking it up whenever I could and working on it here and there. It's nothing all that special. Just a simple pattern. But it's warm and fuzzy and was finished in one week. This is big for me. I am the crowned queen of procrastination and half-done projects that never get finished. This hat is symbolic. It's my metaphorical fresh start. It's telling me, "Yeah, you CAN do this, girl. And you can also finish high school and keep up with your job and no matter what people think of your as-of-yet unplanned future, you're doin' alright." (It's a very chatty hat.) Yes, it's just a hat, but, to get slightly cliche, it's also the first step of the rest of my life.

Hey world, look out. I've got pointy needles and I know how to use 'em.

Cast On Baby!

Oh  yes, this is fantasic.

It's Call Me Maybe, knit style.