War Games

Every summer a lot of the kids from church go to the Northern California Florida College Camp for a week.

Every year the camp holds War Games...a version of capture the flag played with flour bombs.

Last year every person on my team, Omega, died...except for Champ. (Champ is Ark, Fish, and Blossom's 14 year old brother.)

Champ lived until the end of every round. It was amazing. He would climb trees, hide behind boulders, and just survive. He also took out more of the opposition than I think the rest of Omega combined. (And that is saying a lot, because we had some extremely athletic senior guy campers on the team.)

A while ago I promised Champ that I would knit him something, since I had knit hats for all the other boys at church. I asked him if he wanted a beanie. After some discussion we settled on something even cooler...

I made him a ski mask to wear to war games.

I think he likes it.

(I did make him promise not to hold up any 7-11's in it though.)

Little McBeanie

Little Mc, BigOne's younger brother, had a birthday.

He had a birthday a while ago.

I promised him a handknit, and gave him an IOU for a blue beanie.

The poor kid.

Birthdays of departing folk, impending births, graduations, and going-aways all kept cropping up...and I kept putting off his beanie. I felt bad, I really did. But, as I am sure you all know, I am the Queen of Justification.

Justification #1: Little Mc was not leaving the state anytime soon.
Justification #2: A beanie is winter-wear (regardless of JoNo's constant wearing of his) and this is summer.
Justification #3: He isn't pestering me like everyone else.

It was that last one that killed me. Little Mc was not making a stinker of himself like EVERYONE else always does. He just waited patiently, knowing I would get around to it. Why, I asked myself, should he be punished for good behavior when everyone else clearly is benefiting from bad? So, with much love, I set aside the nostepinde the last 2 nights and knit. I ignored all other projects and chores that called to me...I just knit.

And I finished it. It is ready and waiting to grace his head on Sunday. YAY!

(I actually feel even worse because I finished it so quickly...was I really incapable of finding a measly 2 nights of knitting time all summer?)

Post Script to JoNo's Hat

I meant to post pictures of JoNo's hat after I added the green ties.

I ended up going with a green that was more lime than neon...mostly because it was what I had in-stash. (I love the kid, but I am not buying yet another new skein just so I can add strings to his earflaps...)

To make the ties, I cut 6 lengths of yarn, approximately 24 inches long, and threaded three through the bottom of each earflap, so that 6 ends hung down on each side. Then I braided them (2 ends per braid segment), knotted them off, trimmed them, and fluffed the ends.

I forgot to take a picture, but it ended up not mattering. JoNo wore the thing all night, and several times over the next week or so, and happened to post oodles of pictures of himself on facebook. So I stole a couple:

Addendum to the Conclusion

I gave JoNo the hat.

He loved it.

But asked if I could add the strings to the earflaps.

I said sure, and took the hat back after photographing him in it.

Then he asked if the strings could be neon green.

Boys are weird.