Day 4: Where are they now? - 2kcbwday4

Write about the fate of a past knitting project. Whether it be something that you crocheted or knitted for yourself or to give to another person. An item that lives with you or something which you sent off to charity. To me, this prompt make me think about the Cousin Hats for Waub, Musky, Gig and Meegis.

I started knitting with a vengence in the summer I was keen to show off my skills. During a trip to Ottawa for a friends wedding I brought along some of my knitting to show off to my relatives with whom I was staying for the weekend. While I was there I brought along a hat I had knit out of KnitPicks Elegance (baby alpaca and silk), which sadly had been discontinued. My aunt commented how much she would love to give her boys (three grown sons and a 5-year-old grandson) handknit hats like that one for Christmas.  Looking to impress my aunt, I agreed to make her the hats for the cost of the materials.

Thus began the saga of the Cousin Hats.  I had told her that I would only be making a single pattern in different colors and she would sort out who got which one (although one was to be smaller for her grandson).  I finally settled on the Top-Down Timothy Cap by Splindarella, which because it was top down and ribbed I could take advantage of the maximum amount of material, KnitPicks Andean Treasure (100% baby alpaca), and fit some very differently sized heads.

The project was painful for me, not only making four identical hats, but HAVING to make them and by a specific date. It took all the fun out of knitting. The only saving grace was the materials, the alpaca was nice, and didn't make me want to harm anyone with it.

So, I toiled through the hat making process, finishing them up well before their deadline.  As it turns out my aunt wanted me to give them to my cousins myself so they could thank me appropriately (which was very nice of her) and the two I did see (who are older than me) immediately picked their favorite and left the last one for their little brother.  The oldest of the three, Waub, is an on-camera reporter for the CBC (and has a book coming out in May, Midnight Sweatlodge) and he promised he would wear it on camera and send me a picture.

So, that is where one of them is now, forever immortalized on film.

Waub Hat

So I learned a few things from making these hats:

1. I don't do commission knitting 2. I am a Selfish Knitter 3. Getting your knitting on TV is really cool (particularly when your cousin gets all sorts of compliments on it when he posts the picture on Facebook for you)