Yesterday in the wee hours of the morning, I sent three of my boys off for their weekly ski & snowboard expedition. One of them was sporting a new hat. Yes, Steve finally got his hat for the 2008-2009 winter season. It's tradition, you see, that he gets a new one each year. But this year I was a little bit later than usual. One could blame it on Harper. Or the holidays. Or any number of things. But let's be honest here and admit that there's been no lack of knitting around these parts. The knitting time wasn't the hold up with this hat.
No, I blame Ravelry. And the gazillion hats I was trying to choose from to make this year. You think the regular torture of years past that I put him through to get his hat was bad? This year it was nuttier. Picture this man after a full day of work - either with the kids or out in the world. With everyone finally asleep in the house, the wood stacked for the next day, the dinner dishes done...well, you get the idea. He's tired. And then I appear in bed. With a laptop. All set to Ravelry.com, with a dozen hats queued up and ready for discussion. "I was thinking about this one, or maybe this one. But if I made this one, I'd have to buy new yarn. What color did you say you wanted? There's also this one, but I'm not so sure about the rim. What if I took the top of this one and combined with the bottom of this one. Blah Blah Yarn Blah Blah. What do you think? Steve! Wake up!"
Oh the torture I put him through. But he's a patient man and he does love his hats. So finally this week, I made a decision and went with the Boyfriend Hat (available free here), with two skeins of Manos from the stash.
He's as grateful and gracious as ever for his 2008-2009 hat. But I think he's equally grateful to know that he'll be going to bed tonight without surfing Ravelry. (Honestly, I think he'll miss it.)