Crocheting for Blood and Glory
Ahh, the YarnWarrior. Entering the windswept plains of battle with naught but her hooks and needles, dangling a thin thread of yarn from her pack. She is the forgotten heroine of the wartorn tundra. She is: crazy.
In other words we have entered our second deadly fiberarts contest of the year. Yarn Smackdown, which is set up alot like March Madness where knitters and crocheters face off in a bracket style competition, the winners advancing to the next round.
I have been put in the crochet brackets since, well, you name it and I do it. The hat pattern is both charming and aggravating. Charming because it makes a nice hat. Stretchy, attractive, warm. Aggravating because it is *alot* of work for a hat. Maybe it just seemed that way because I was furiously hooking for my life before I went to bed (Now how many other contexts could you get away with saying *that*?!)
It's a vintage pattern; using front and back post double crochet to form cables. They are very attractive cables, but it kinda made me want to knit cables instead.
I can't believe I just said that. Me... the old hand at crochet wants to knit instead? Partially it's because I enjoy doing certain things in certain mediums better. I love crocheting afghans, but in knitting they seem like a chore. I love crocheting pineapple doilies, but I wouldn't want a knit lace pattern to try to imitate pineapples. In the same way crocheting cables felt like kind of a chore.
Anyways, the hat is done, sent and delivered already. I'm hanging on the mail delivery tomorrow to see if I got a hat on the same day or not. But my hat? Well, this baby is a story in and of itself.
I got the pattern and read the yarn requirements. It took 2 skeins (1 1/2 to be exact) and I went "what?!" I have lots and lots of one full skeins - enough for most hats, knit or crochet. But this sucker takes alot of yarn. So I started ripping apart my stash at 7:00 at night (after all the yarn stores were closed) looking for what I had with two matching balls.
I found Encore left over from an ill conceived scarf idea...
Encore is nice yarn. It's part acrylic, but it's soft and washable.
But there was this problem with the color.
Yeah. You see what I mean, right?
Looks like a "Watch out and slow down, dummy, there's a school zone ahead" sign, doesn't it?
So then I made up a song for it.
Sing with me: (to the tune of a possibly recognizable Men Without Hats song…)
Ssss-aaaa-ffff-eeee-tttt-yyyy
Safety-hat!
You can knit if you want to,
you can leave your friends behind,
Because if your friends don’t knit - or they don’t crochet, then
They’re no friends of mine!
I say, we can knit where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
And we can knit.
Francois!
Ah we can wear what we want to the night is young and so am i
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
And surprise ’em with the yellow dye
I say we can knit if want to if we don’t nobody will
And you can act real rude and totally removed
And I can look like an imbecile
I say we'll wear yellow; there colors are out of control
We can knit, we'll crochet we’re doing it wall to wall
Put it on, go outside, everybody look at your hats!
Fold the brim, don a scarf, everybody takin’ the chance
Safety hats!
Oh well the safety hat
Ah yes the safety hat
Safety hat!
Now that that song is in your head, hope that I don't live to next round to make an even dumber song for an even more obnoxious hat.
Mwa hahaha.
In other words we have entered our second deadly fiberarts contest of the year. Yarn Smackdown, which is set up alot like March Madness where knitters and crocheters face off in a bracket style competition, the winners advancing to the next round.
I have been put in the crochet brackets since, well, you name it and I do it. The hat pattern is both charming and aggravating. Charming because it makes a nice hat. Stretchy, attractive, warm. Aggravating because it is *alot* of work for a hat. Maybe it just seemed that way because I was furiously hooking for my life before I went to bed (Now how many other contexts could you get away with saying *that*?!)
It's a vintage pattern; using front and back post double crochet to form cables. They are very attractive cables, but it kinda made me want to knit cables instead.
I can't believe I just said that. Me... the old hand at crochet wants to knit instead? Partially it's because I enjoy doing certain things in certain mediums better. I love crocheting afghans, but in knitting they seem like a chore. I love crocheting pineapple doilies, but I wouldn't want a knit lace pattern to try to imitate pineapples. In the same way crocheting cables felt like kind of a chore.
Anyways, the hat is done, sent and delivered already. I'm hanging on the mail delivery tomorrow to see if I got a hat on the same day or not. But my hat? Well, this baby is a story in and of itself.
I got the pattern and read the yarn requirements. It took 2 skeins (1 1/2 to be exact) and I went "what?!" I have lots and lots of one full skeins - enough for most hats, knit or crochet. But this sucker takes alot of yarn. So I started ripping apart my stash at 7:00 at night (after all the yarn stores were closed) looking for what I had with two matching balls.
I found Encore left over from an ill conceived scarf idea...
Encore is nice yarn. It's part acrylic, but it's soft and washable.
But there was this problem with the color.
Yeah. You see what I mean, right?
Looks like a "Watch out and slow down, dummy, there's a school zone ahead" sign, doesn't it?
So then I made up a song for it.
Sing with me: (to the tune of a possibly recognizable Men Without Hats song…)
Ssss-aaaa-ffff-eeee-tttt-yyyy
Safety-hat!
You can knit if you want to,
you can leave your friends behind,
Because if your friends don’t knit - or they don’t crochet, then
They’re no friends of mine!
I say, we can knit where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind
And we can knit.
Francois!
Ah we can wear what we want to the night is young and so am i
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
And surprise ’em with the yellow dye
I say we can knit if want to if we don’t nobody will
And you can act real rude and totally removed
And I can look like an imbecile
I say we'll wear yellow; there colors are out of control
We can knit, we'll crochet we’re doing it wall to wall
Put it on, go outside, everybody look at your hats!
Fold the brim, don a scarf, everybody takin’ the chance
Safety hats!
Oh well the safety hat
Ah yes the safety hat
Safety hat!
Now that that song is in your head, hope that I don't live to next round to make an even dumber song for an even more obnoxious hat.
Mwa hahaha.
Labels: crochet, death by hat, saftey, yarn smackdown, yellow
posted by JamieL | 6:31 PM
4 Comments:
The song is great! I used to work with someone who was good at improvising new words to songs, takes me too much time to think it through.
And yeah, in any other context what you were doing before bed could get you arrested I suppose! You never know, perhaps your target works as a guide or in some other capacity where they need to be easily spotted in a crowd and that hat could be quite useful, yes?
I hope you're right - so far the Smackdown seems awfully polite and friendly (asking someone what size they want??) and I was really looking forward to reading some serious smack talk (knitter go smashy smashy??) so I'm waiting to see if it picks heat up in the final rounds!
And here I was, afraid that the phrase "furiously hooking for my life before I went to bed " would get stuck in my head!
I have to say, I have been lurking for a few weeks and feel compelled to comment. This was a great song! Love the hat, too, obnoxious color or not :)
Thanks all! I have this odd need to sing (suddenly I feel like I'm in one of those bad musicals where people are like "and I just gotta... siiiiing!") about dumb things at times. :D This hat needed it ;-)
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