Hobo Hat Round 2

I once had a hat that my roommate found in a box of unwanted items in the project room.  I adopted it in the way that most of my favorite accessories come to me: I try on hideously bizarre things for a lark, and immediately fall in love with them.

Apparently my capacity for affection is not without a measure of irony.

Anyway, I lost floppy ugly thing over spring break on the Fung Wa bus.  I was returning from a war protest, and sitting next to a very cute guitar-player who let me do arts and crafts with him.  My roommate was relieved that I lost the hat, having concluded that it made me look like a hobo.  I was pretty dissapointed as far as losing material possessions goes: I kinda loved that hat.

Now, my grandmother-who-loves-me-very-much is a great knitter.  So over the holidays I asked her if she would knit me a hat.  I explained having lost my favorite, and told her that I would send her a picture of me wearing the lost hat in its happier days, and a skein of yarn if she would knit me a new hat.  She explained, per Jewish grandmother style, that it would be a practically insurmountable challenge, but that she would try anything for me.

Now the most exiting part of this plan was not that I would get a new floppy hat, but rather that I would finally get to go to the yarn store and ::buy:: something.  There are so many tantalizing, luxurious yarns from which to choose, but I never get to buy any because I do not know how to knit.

(Digression: I also do not buy yarn because I am very poor.  However, over the holidays, the same time that I saw my grandmother-who-loves-me-very-much, I saw my uncle-who-is-very-mischievous.  Said uncle proposed a dare to me at lunch: that I could not possibly swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon.  My uncle-who-is-very-mischievous explained that he had watched about 20 youtube videos of people failing to do this, and that he would pay me 100 dollars if I succeeded.  Being down for pretty much anything, I am now 100 dollars richer, and I decided to splurge on yarn).

When I got to the yarn store, I looked at many beautiful yarns and made a big pile of the ones I might buy.  The store lady did not like me messing up her store, but I have used the layout method to choose products ever since I was a 4-year-old sprawled in the middle of the aisle at the movie store with 10 different episodes of Rainbow Bright and My Little Pony lined up on the floor in front of me.

After much searching, I made an astonishing find.  I discovered, tucked away behind a display sweater, the very yarn (#20 in the diagram) that my hat had been made of!  After looking at all the baby alpaca yarn in subtle, sophisticated colors, and the japanese wool that changed colors ever few inches, and the cashmere yarn with little angle hair threads coming out of it, I made up my mind.  The hat for me could only be made with Rimini Rainbow #20.  I bought it, and will send it off to St. Louis tomorrow.

And it only cost $4.95 a bundle.