The Alaska Hat

For those of you who don't already know the story of how Jeremy and I met I will give you a brief summarized version.  We met through mutual friends.  He was an enlisted man in the Air Force home on leave.  We briefly met one night at a get together.  He seemed fun and nice but he was gone the next day.  He was also hung up on somebody else at the time.

Then life moved on a year went by and he was home on leave again.  This time for a couple of weeks instead of a short weekend.  I was casually dating a mutual friend but he and I became friends despite the distraction.  Looking back I was paying him more attention than the other guy.

Here was a nice looking guy who was funny, had manners and was adored by his friends (my friends who I trusted).  Problem was, he was stationed in Alaska.  From my little corner of Oklahoma that's a long way away.  Google maps puts it at 3,633 miles to be exact.  In my mind I think I was thinking "Well, that would never work."  Besides, I was dating that other guy.

Well, we became friends over those few weeks he was here but then came the day that he had to fly back to Alaska.  I realized then that I really didn't want my new friend to go.  I looked up to the sky that evening thinking about him on his flight and how he must feel lonely.

As fate would have it, the other guy decided that same weekend that he just wanted to be friends.  I remember talking with my best girlfriend and she said, "I think you should give Chia (my husband's nickname) another look".  And thank goodness, I took her advice.  I figured it was probably a stupid idea though considering he had just left but I emailed him anyway.  I told him that I enjoyed getting to know him and that I would like to keep in touch.  Then a few emails in, I confessed that I kinda liked him.  Turns out he kinda liked me too.

Then came the phone calls.  Many, many phone calls.  Daily in fact.  We talked for hours and hours well into the wee hours of the morning.  I talked so long on my cell phone that my ears burned and my battery died all the time.  We fell for each other over the phone.  We professed our love for each other the first time over the phone.  I am very grateful for the invention of the phone but I blame having to communicate all that time by those means for my dislike to this day of talking on the phone.

Over the next year, I visited him twice in Alaska and he came here once.  It was always so painful to have to leave each other.  I will spare you all the stories of my nervous breakdowns (and his) and all the crying and lamenting and just skip to the end.  He eventually separated from the military and came home.  A year after that we were married.  Three years after that I had his baby.  A beautiful baby girl who STILL looks just like him (with my nose thrown in the mix).

Now to get to the point of my telling you this story.  (I have been told I have a problem getting to the point).  I wonder WHO tells me that all the time.  Anywhoooo, on one of those trips up to Alaska we visited a local yarn shop at my request.  I like to collect yarns and wines made locally in the places where I travel.  Since I imagine the growing of grapes is probably unheard of in the really-freakin'-cold interior of Alaska, I looked for yarn made there.  I found some.  I decided I would make something for my beloved from this yarn.

Well, seven years, 2 dogs, 3 cats, two houses, and one baby later I have FINALLY gotten around to making something for him.  I even threw in some of my very 1st handspun I learned to spin last summer to make it extra special.  I call it "The Alaska Hat".  Apparently, he loves it.  I asked him the other night why he was wearing it to bed.  He said, "It brings me comfort." 

I like that.

The pattern for the hat comes from this book.  It's the "Fisherman's Watch Cap".