FO: Giant Sea Urchin Beret

Once upon a time, I used to be a pre-med. I thought I would devote my life to saving small children from malaria epidemics in Africa. Thankfully, I reached the understanding that I was not meant to be a medical doctor before I wasted my time and everyone else's by groaning my way through the rest of my chem labs and even through med school with a big frown on my face.

But I did enjoy science a fair bit and I liked my freshman year bio lab well enough. Our TF once handed us male sea urchins and told us to inject the male urchins with a chemical that caused them to ejaculate. Then we were told to take the...um...stuff...and fertilize sea urchin ova. After that, we had the fun of looking through a microscope as the cells rapidly divided.

That's basically all I was thinking about while I knit this the other night:

Giant Sea Urchin Beret

Pattern: Bulky Beret by Lipp Holmfeld in VK Holiday '06
Yarn: Rowan Big Wool, 1.3 balls in color Mulberry
Needles: US 13 24" circulars and DPNs

This may be my absolutely most wearable knit. The thing is, I am not a hat person. Not at all. I hate how they make my head look, I hate how they flatten my hair. Yuck. When I wear a normal hat, I keep thinking of Tom Hanks' line in A League of Their Own when he mutters to the umpire, "Did anyone ever tell you, you look like a penis with that little hat on?"

But this hat is different! Yes! Different! Better! Not hair-flattening! Love-worthy! So much so that I stuck a little feather on it and called it macaroni.

Yep, Yankee Doodle ain't got nothin' on me. I actually stuck them together because these are the colors that make me happiest. Deep green, gold, and vibrant purple. I am a bit obsessed by that little feather pen. When I'm down, I dip it into (violet!) ink and scribble away in my journal and imagine I am Charlotte Bronte.

And here is me modeling it in oh-so professional fashion without even changing out of my pajamas. I have also decided that Rowan needs a big round of applause for creating the most perfect plum-purple shade EVER. It's not coming out right in the photos, but the true shade is like the purpliest of purples that leans juuuuust enough towards burgundy. Big Wool is also a scrumptious yarn and I finished this in an hour. You heard me. One measly hour. Truly, a last-minute knitted gift. Only this one is a gift for me.

Totally off-topic, but if you haven't seen No Country for Old Men, get thee to a movie theater!

It was so good that I went through an existential panic attack during the last scene. Ok, that doesn't sound like a positive recommendation, but the movie gripped me in a way that very few movies have over the last year. It's incredibly sad and incredibly thought-provoking. Tommy Lee Jones' weathered face and his understated performance are both just wonderful and Javier Bardem continues to convince me that he's a fantabulous actor with (gasp!) depth.

In addition, I also saw American Gangster this weekend and was a bit disappointed. Denzel is Denzel and Russell is Russell. Not much else goes on other than glamorizing the drug business and painting most of drug law enforcement as crooked. But the common denominator in both movies: Josh Brolin. Who knew that Brand from The Goonies would become a fantabulous actor in his own right? Somewhere, Andy Carmichael is very, very glad that she gave Troy back his letter jacket.