Until last night, if you had mentioned my knitting in the company of Kevin you would have seen him sigh and look wistfully off into the distance.
You see, he's been owed a hat for a long time. Since February at least, if not earlier. The irony is there have been many hats for Kevin. One was too shiny. One was destined for my mother. The yarn for a third was used for a baby gift. And so on and so forth.
In August, at our rather disatserous day at Knit Camp, Kev was on the lookout for some yarn for a hat JUST FOR HIM. He found it at the Toft Alpaca stand. As he brought me back to see it, I first clocked the price and gulped. Lets just say it was a fair bit more than I would pay for wool, even 100% Alpaca. But I owed him and I am a sucker for big blue eyes. Kevin, however, hadn't looked at the cost and fumbled with confusion when I told him the wadge of cash in my hand would not cover his purchase and a card was needed. But he loved it and I agreed I would fashion a hat out of the spun gold yarn.
And dutifully I began. We picked out the Koolhaas pattern by Jared Flood (can I just say how much I LOVE his patterns. Very well written and just gorgeous modern pieces and his new yarn range...sigh. Just my colours. I have a couple other of his projects on my needles at the moment and every time I click on his blog I want to knit EVERYTHING). Over the course of the last few months Kev's hat has been picked up and put down.
Yesterday, I was determined to finish it. And I did. And for what it cost, I must say I am less than impressed. There is just something about the yarn that isn't great. Its itchy and it has a strange drape. I also didn't check my guage and its big.
Way too big. At the back Kev thinks he looks like Darth Vader. I could rip it back, but having a history of ruining many a knitting project this way, it doesn't seem like the best option. And so it, like those before it, is going to a different home.
And poor Kevin waits.