Plain and Simple

This baby afghan is going sooo much more smoothly than the last one (yes, this one is also my own design). The only problem I’ve had so far is that since it’s worked in double crochet and I’m so used to working with single crochet, my calculations for proportion were off a bit. No biggie. Anyway, as you can see, progress has been made.

In other news, I finished a project for Max – a helmet! We got him a little toy motorcycle for his birthday last month, and ever since he’s been making off with bits of Greg’s gear to go ‘riding’ with. (See, mom? Proper usage of safety equipment, instilled early.) He has his own little gloves, and any pair of shoes will do for boots as far as he’s concerned, but for a helmet we had nothing. We tried letting him play with one of Greg’s old ones, but as you might expect, they were too big and too hard and too heavy to be very safe toys. I decided that it would be pretty easy to crochet a helmet – at least helmet-like enough to satisfy a three-year-old.

I would have been right, too, but I ignored something that should have been posted on a sign with big red letters. Three year olds make terrible head models. Seriously. If you’ve ever tried to get a three year old to stand still while you try to fit something on them that covers their whole head (and not in a ‘sack’ kind of way, but in a ‘this needs to sit over certain places’ kind of way) you will understand when I tell you that after asking, then coaxing, then bribing, and then finally contemplating the use of some sort of sedative (perhaps delivered through a blowgun; I’ve always wanted one of those) to get my child to stand still enough for me to work on something that was supposed to be a treat for him to begin with…I gave up. The only reason it’s actually finished is that about three days after I put it away I was sitting in my usual crocheting spot, working on the baby blanket, and Max asked for his helmet. At this point all I had left to do was fashion some side inserts and sew them in (and weave in the ends), and his patience lasted that long. So finished it is! I’m not really that pleased with it, to be honest with you. (Max really likes it though, so it’s possible that I’ll make another attempt.) It fits strangely, and – no, that’s it. It fits strangely, because it’s not shaped right. It could have been much better if I had a blowgun.