I sit and knit a hat to fit...

...I sat and knat a hat too fat!

I am not a domestic goddess. I do what I have to do such as throw a peanut butter sandwich at hungry kids or spray the occasinal cockroach on the bench but every now and then my creative juices start flowing and I get the urge to...er...create. I think it comes from watching far too much television and reading too many homemaking blogs. It's a nice thought in theory but in real life it doesn't always quite work out. Refer to exhibit A. The wintery weather motivated me to knit a simple little hat for my li'l munchkin. Only it wasn't all that simple and it definately wasn't little. You'd think I'd have learned from the experience of trying to make that sweat shirt she's wearing, which was not without its dramas.

Meanwhile, there's this lady at church who is a real honey. Now she really IS a domestic godess. She can do just about anything. And she's so thoughtful - one of those quiet people who works away behind the scenes to get things done.  She's always baking gluten free slices and biccies just for me whenever there's a shared lunch and seriously, I can be bought for food! For ages I've wanted to do something for her to show how appreciative I am. I thought about baking her a cake but I don't bake and she does. I wanted to make her feel a bit special just like she makes me feel special, but how do I do something for Nigella, Alison Holst and Enid Gilchrist all rolled into one? I decided to knit her a scarf. One of those nifty ones I made for myself a few years back, with a hole in it to slip the end through so that you really only have to knit half a scarf. That should be pretty foolproof. What could possibly go wrong?

If that hat was fat, the scarf was even fatter. I couldn't undo it, I was in too deep. I had already dropped a stitch earlier and being that fluffy sort of wool, it was a real bugger to pick it up. My other knitting needles are safely stored I-don't-know-where so I had resorted to using a nearby thermometer to pick it up. Tragic I know, but at least I deserve top marks for ingenuity.

It would break my heart to undo it. So I bought more wool and kept knitting. Thankfully I decided to compare it to one of my earlier models and realised it was three times fatter than it should have been and my  friend would look like she'd been attacked by a woolly sack.  I started again.  Finally it's finished and all I have to do is give it to her only I'm a little embarrassed because...it's still...a bit...too...FAT.