Sunday, February 10, 2008

There's still a lot of head up there!

Yesterday was my first foray into knitting combat, and it was awesome.

"Knitting Combat?" You may wonder. It doesn't quite fit with the stereotype of grandma knitting booties in a rocking chair does it? (Not that there's anything wrong with that ;) )

Hat Attack was an international game of knitting assasination. Knitters sign up online, and each one is assigned both an assasin and a target. On Saturday morning a pattern is posted and each participant tries to knit the hat and get it in the mail to their target before their assasin's hat reaches them.... because once you get your hat - you're dead! If you die before you finish your hat, you've got to send your hat-in-progress to your assasin for them to finish up & use to kill your target as well. It's a bit confusing, but a whole lot of fun! Especially when you meet up with a bunch of your fellow assasins to spend all day knitting at a cafe.


Given how crappy my Friday was, I really wasn't sure if I wanted to participate. But when I got to the cafe I felt better almost immediately. There were five of us all in different stages of progress. The 'weapon' was a Binary cable hat. The stacks of cable crosses (1) and no crosses (0) were to graphically indicate the numbers 0 - 15. I'm not going to pretend I have binary memorized or anything... but the cable pattern is really cool and fun to knit. If I don't like the hat I am killed with, I'll make another for myself. =)


Between the knitting, comparing progress, trash-talking and threats to unravel each other's knitting, CAKE, and chatting- a good time was had by all! One knitter managed to finish up the hat & mail it off by early afternoon. I got about halfway done before deciding to call it a day & go home. I did finish the hat by the end of the day though... so my target will be dead sometime on Tuesday. ;)

But the fact is, hats are a pretty quick knit so I'm guessing there will be mass carnage on Monday or Tuesday and it will all be over by the end of the week. Someone suggested that next time we make a scarf & mittens to go with the hat. That would be fun... prolong the battle a bit. I'll definitely join in next time.

7 comments:

gl. said...

that. is. SO. COOL! i love knitting combat! may you dispatch your enemies swiftly & mercilessly! :D

Bezzie said...

Yeah boy, a hat is like one of the fastest things I can knit. You almost look like you have a brimless Si Capitan there!

d said...

knitters are weird.

Beverly said...

Sounds like fun! Unfortunately, I am a horrible procrastinator and would never get around to mailing the finished hat.

Rebel said...

gl - my weapon is already on it's way to it's target!

bezzie - yeah, it's a cool pattern, if you're at all geeky.

d - yes, yes we are.

beverly - I thought that would be a problem for me, but the pressure of the whole thing kinda encourages you to get it out.

Michael5000 said...

Just get a P.O. Box. They'll never be able to get you.

gl. said...

so what happened? were you the assassinator or the assassinated? :)