The knitting of many cunning hats

I can’t really dive into this story without giving you the background on it which goes back many months.

While on Twitter one day I happened to make a comment to @ThinkGeek about something. I’m not sure what it was about. Probably about a lightsaber bokken if I know me. In any case, they replied back and then came back with a question. They wanted to know if that was a Jayne hat I was wearing in my avatar. (If you aren’t familiar with the phrase “Jayne Hat” google it right now and then come on back.) I let them know that yes it was and that I knitted them. I offered to knit one for them as well and they instead asked if I could make one for Timmy, the small stuffed monkey.

I said sure though at the time I’d never made any other sizes but my “one size fits most”. The hat for Timmy was an adventure in resizing my own pattern to make it fit a much tinier head. Because it was so small I was able to whip it up in a day and mail it off quickly. The hat now adorns Timmy in several photos on the website and in newsletters. ThinkGeek was extremely awesome about mentioning me as the knitter and I ended up with not only a slew of orders for hats but a ton of new friends.

(photo by ThinkGeek.com)

My hats have been spotted at locations all over the world now and one proud owner has sent me the photos taken of her wearing her own hat and posing with Leonard Nimoy, Wil Wheaton and even a Timmy wearing his tiny hat! Friends who wore theirs to Dragon*Con 2010 got compliments and tagged me in every photo that their hat was in. One gentleman saw me knitting a hat while standing in the registration line while I waited for my badge and wanted to buy the hat as soon as it was done. He owned that hat by Saturday afternoon.

That brings us up to recent events. The awesome folks at ThinkGeek contacted me and asked if I thought I might be interested and able to whip up several normal sized hats for their staff. Unable to resist the fun I said sure and to let me know the final count.

The final count was 18. As fast as I could knit them.

Keep in mind that I not only work a full time job that doesn’t allow me to knit at my desk but I also do a ton of writing projects such as fic challenges and NaNoWriMo that all have deadlines. I hadn’t thought about that when I agreed and yet I knew that I could do this.

It’s now November 22 and I’ve mailed off 8 of the hats so far. Another is finished in my knitting bag and the 10th should be done tonight with the 11th at least started before I go to bed. I knit when I’m sitting down at home, watching a movie. I knit when I’m on a 10 minute break at work. I knit when I’m in the middle of an RPG night, only pausing to roll dice. I’m a crazy knitting machine, determined to get these last 8.5 done and then 4 more for a friend before Christmas. Hopefully the holiday weekend that’s looking at me will allow me to do that.

Still, I’m proud of my hats. At conventions they get many compliments for being extremely authentic looking and I love that I can spot one of my hats just at a glance, knowing it from any other Jayne hats. I love that folks wear them out to conventions and other events (and even just in the cold weather) and then take pictures. On Facebook I keep a photo album full of pictures of people wearing the Jayne hats that I’ve made. Adding to it makes me smile.

So while I know I got myself in a little deep with this one, I wouldn’t have handed this project off for the world. At least I’m learning exactly how fast I can knit these suckers in bulk!

(P.S. Want your own cunning hat? As long as you don’t mind being on the waiting list, drop me a comment below and make sure your email is filled out and I’ll get back to you asap with details and pricing!)

~ by rumielf on November 22, 2010.