Finishing the hat

From Sorkin to Sondheim - the post subject refers to the Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George, which is the story of Georges Seurat. During this song Georges girlfriend is leaving him because he is engrossed in his work, and not enough in her. As she is talking about why she is leaving, he is focused on this painting and ends the song:

"Finishing a hat...

Starting on a hat..

Finishing a hat...

Look, I made a hat...

Where there never was a hat"

While I'm certainly not comparing myself to Georges Seurat and his art in any way, I have been engrossed in a hat of my own recently. I've mentioned previously that I'm working on an R2D2 knit hat for a friend. Just a little over a year ago, I said casually in passing that I think I would like to learn to knit and the next day received a link to instruction on how to knit a hat that looks like the top of R2D2's head. I'm not sure I had any real intention of following up on learning to knit, but now I had a reason to. I was unemployed at the time and anyone who motivated me to fill the time (in a way that wasn't sitting around and watching Gilmore Girls - not that there's anything wrong with that) I thought deserved what they asked for. I took a 4 week knitting class and started on the hat.

This hat has brought me nothing but pain and suffering. Sure, several good lessons were learned the hard way. That doesn't make it okay that I've had to start this thing 3 times. Here's a picture of all three (all three and my cat who was poking around them) :

Let me take you on a little tour of hats. On your far left is the first one I tried. The idea of stitching all the blue boxes on after it was knitted didn't sound like much fun, so I tried a more advanced knitting technique called stranded knitting where you carry both colors around the hat. (Do I sound like the giantest craft dork right now?) That was complicated, and I'm fairly sure I was doing it incorrectly, but I got through it. Now, when it came to starting to shape the dome there was a stitch I hadn't learned. I watched some You Tube videos, thought I had a hand on it and started the decreases. After two rows, I realized I had read the pattern incorrectly and had done way too many of the new stitch. I was supposed to do one of those stitches every 12 or something and I had done it continuously. I thought perhaps I could just pull out the two rows and re-insert my needles and pick right back up where I had left off, but I'm just not that good. Dang it. Starting over.

Using the same pattern, I start again (see middle hat), this time not using the stranded method and resigned to having to double stitch all the blue boxes. I get to the dome part and follow the directions, for the most part. I think I lost count somewhere, but it all came together. Except, when I looked at it, there were funny points in strange places and kind of a hole where it didn't all come together at the top. I just didn't feel it was acceptable.

I start again. Why I'm so determined to do this so well, I'm not really sure. The friend this is for is, much like this hat has been, kind of a pain in my ass. But, now, this is for me. I just want to do it. I go back to the internet and search for a different pattern. I decide it's the pattern that's cursed, not me and my skill, or lack thereof. I find this one and decide this is the one that will make it happen. Thanks to Megan for posting this pattern with lots of great pictures. I finish the actual hat in just a couple of days and now have to start the double stitching, adding the main detail around the middle of the hat. I pull the hat out of my knitting bag and go to it. After about three boxes I think, "Man, this one came out lumpier than I thought." And then in a flash of pure idiocy where you have no one to blame but yourself, I realize I had pulled hat #2 out of the bag and started stitching the detail on the wrong hat. Double Dang It.

I sigh. I pull the correct hat out. I start the stitching. I think to myself again how much this hat, and now the friend who requested it, are becoming more and more similar.

Double stitching takes longer than I would like it to. I finish. Just this morning actually.

(please ignore my totally messy hair)

And so it is complete. With the exception of four stitches I have to add in red. But I don't have any red yarn at this time.

The Cut Man Cometh

I thought of several corny jokes to start todays post with...The Big Bang Theory, To Bang or not to Bang, etc... I decided to avoid them all, even though this topic might be humorous to some. It is in fact about - whether or not I should cut bangs into my hair.

I have a lot of time to myself these days. My husband travels every week and that leaves me at home with the cat and the knitting. I'm 80 years old before my time, but that's a blog for another day. I'm going to try and explain how this whole bang thing came around without sounding crazy, but as they say in Clue, too late.

I bought this shirt the other week. I mentioned it in my things that make me happy post. Well, I got home from work the night I wore it and just couldn't take it off. It's my dream white shirt, it was so hot. I finally go upstairs to change into my standard evening sweatshirt and I pass a mirror and start admiring this shirt yet again. Then what happens is eventually I end up taking what I believe is known as a good hard look at myself.

(Note: I know there are several vanity and mirror jokes to be made here. If you know me well, you know I'm fairly obsessed with mirrors. Thank goodness my sisters don't read this or there would be plenty of tales about how I'm slightly image obsessed.)

So, that night I ended up standing there for several minutes and staring at myself and really seeing myself. (Do you think this is a sign of too much therapy? Or just enough?) I shake that off and resume my evening of red wine, dvr'd shows and knitting a scarf. Then a couple of nights ago, this happened again. I was having a pretty good hair day, so I found myself admiring my ponytail. Then all of a sudden, it wasn't my image or hair I was looking at, but myself. All the psycho-babble about finding yourself, I was starting to understand it. That night while all this was happening, suddenly I thought, you need bangs. The true Sarah has bangs. Which brings me out of the semi-crazy portion of this post.

I gave up the bangs at the end of my senior year of high school when Mr. Lane, who was directing our production of Our Town, told me I had to get them out of my face. That began the process and all through college I started growing them out and then I've had pretty much the same hair style since. Why bangs now? I have a pretty healthy relationship with my hair. If I don't like something, hair grows back and I rarely get very upset about a bad haircut. I think my hair is my best feature, but that's all because it's thick and curly, neither which I have any control over. Why not try something new?

That was my journey to the question and now the decision must be made. I'm going to get my hair cut Saturday. Perhaps I'll come out a truer version of myself. It might be nice to meet her.

Small Town

This little news story popped up on my Yahoo home page this morning. Being a fan of all things Christian Bale, I read it, not expecting what I read...

Batman's Latest Archenemy: Batman
Buzz Up

E! Online – Batman's Latest Archenemy: Batman(E! Online)

Los Angeles (E! Online) – It may be more the provenance of Superman, but this time it's Batman who's entered Bizarro World.
Following the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin and Two-Face in the Caped Crusader's pantheon of sworn nemeses, Batman is now set to face off against none other than...uh, Batman.
The mayor of Batman, a small oil-producing town in Turkey, has filed suit against The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros., the studio behind the record-shattering blockbuster, looking for a cut in the film's royalties in exchange for using the city's name without permission.
Which begs the question of where hizzoner has been the past 70 years.
"There is only one Batman in the world," Mayor Huseyin Kalkan said, per Variety. "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us."
In addition to the name share, Kalkan claims the emotional distress that apparently comes from having one of the most indelible superheroes share a moniker with your town has led to several unsolved murders and a high suicide rate.
A WB rep, meanwhile, says the studio has seen reports of the legal action in the media but have yet to receive any court papers.
Holy nutjob, Batman.

This raises many questions, but the most obvious seems to be why not go after the creator of Batman. Batman has certainly been around longer than this movie. In fact, Batman movies have been around longer than this latest one. The mayor of Batman, Turkey is only hurting himself by excluding all the royalties from all the comic books and movies. And merchandise! What about all these kids wearing Batman shirts, or Batman bookbags?

I love a healthy dose of ridiculous before lunch.