Kids Creeper Hat

Every child I know is obsessed with MineCraft (as well as some adults I know).  If you know anything about MineCraft, you know what a Creeper is.  I set myself the challenge of making the perfect kids' Creeper hat, and began my on-line quest.  I'd found some knit creeper hats, but most of the patterns had the Creeper face sewn on after the fact.  I think you all know how I feel about "finish work", so that was a turn off.  Plus the hats were a basic skull-fitting type, so not very MineCraft-y, since everything in MineCraft is blocks.  

Then I found a pattern for the face done in crochet color work.  It was perfect to create that "pixellated" look.  I had Thomas pick out the perfect green-to-white-verigated yarn, and got started on a basic hat pattern.  But, as I progressed, I was stymied about how to handle the crown.  Finally, I decided the crown had to be squared off, to create a "cube" appearance.  Viola!  The perfect kids' Creeper hat!

I didn't really follow a pattern (except for the face), I just kind of made it up as I went along.  So, if you want to duplicate this hat and need a little guidance, let me know and I'll try to walk you through it. :)

Something New

Okay, two somethings new in one picture.

I've suspected for a while that William's vision was not great.  He seems to need to be awfully close to whatever screen he's in front of to see what's going on in his video games.  Then, when we attended Thomas' performance of A Christmas Carol at New London Theatre, I lent him my glasses so he could see something written on a whiteboard on stage, and he asked me if he could keep them for the rest of the performance.

So.... time to go in for an eye exam.  We do this every year anyway, to check for D complications.  Last year the opt doc said he was a bit near-sighted, but we mutually agreed to hold off of the glasses to see if it could be corrected by reducing screen time, forcing focus from a distance, etc.

Apparently not.

Today, we picked up William's first glasses.  He was really excited, because he's going to have one more thing in common with me.

On the way home from picking them up, we stopped off at the library to return some books, and saw this machine outside the newly-remodeled building.

That, my friends, is William with his new glasses, standing in front of the new book-dispensing machine in front of our library.  I'd never seen such a thing before, and hope to see many more in the future.  Way better than soda, junk food, and video dispensing machines, no doubt.

Oh, and there was actually a third new thing, at the library.  The book return slot on the outside of the building talks.  It just about scared the pee out of me when I went to return something.  A talking book return really is one of the last things one expects.  Ever.