"You Must Knit Me a Hat ... With Ears"

Some of you know that by training I am a librarian, and I worked as a librarian for years until marriage and a few moves and other stuff got me out of the library field and into a job just to have a job. Wasn't very good at that other job; didn't particularly enjoy that other field; found an opportunity to return to a library into a job I loved right before M was offered the church here in Tucson.

So, I left the library job I loved and moved here. What with the economy and the difficulty of finding a job here unless you know people, and the dog who really needs to be watched during the day and all that, I didn't find a library job when we moved down here, so I found something close, something that allows me to work from home and use my information science background. Perfect -- at least the dog, who gets to "go to work" with Mommy every day thinks so.

In order to a) get to know people in the library system; b) keep my library chops somewhat oiled; and c) get out of the house and interacting with creatures on two legs once in a while, I volunteer one night a week for three hours at the local library branch. Since I'm a librarian, I actually get to do a lot of stuff as a volunteer that others don't (yeah, so I do the work of a library clerk and don't get paid).

One of the clerks at the branch where I work is a 20-something college student who has been working in the library system since she was 15, wants to be a librarian when she grows up, and is just all-round fun to talk to. One slow night, I found a copy of One Skein Wonders on the shelves where I was weeding and showed the pattern for the Jamaica Pouch to Caitlin with an oddly proud, "I designed this."

I swear, the next words out of her mouth were, "You knit? Then you must knit me a hat ... with ears." Okay, there might have been other words in there, but that was the gist of the conversation. In return she promised me the vegan baked good of my choice.

So, this is that hat. The hat itself is the Adults-Only Devil Hat by Kitty Schmidt from Stitch 'n Bitch; the ears are of my own devising; yarn is Madil Merino Mix 100 in white.

Tonight I deliver it to Caitlin. I do hope she likes it.

PS. Why is it that some vegans don't wear animal fibers? I mean, I can understand fine silks whose creation requires the killing of silkworms, but wool? I grew up around sheep ranches -- those creatures are pretty well cared for.

Okay, so I have my own aversion to using food or feed crops for anything but food or feed, so we all have our hangups, right.