Crocheting A Kitty Hat And A Tom Cat Hat

     There are some things, I've learned, that I simply must avoid: Cottage cheese, because I'll eat the whole carton.  Bread pudding, rice pudding, and tapioca pudding, because I'll eat the whole pan or potful.  Jigsaw puzzles, because once I pick up that first piece I'll be a woman possessed until all 550 pieces are in place.
      But of all the feeders of my obsessive disorder, the one that I truly must avoid at all costs is crochet.

    Put a crochet hook and a skein of yarn in my hands and I become a candidate for the Twelve Steps.  

     Because once I start looping that yarn over that hook I can't stop. I could sit for a whole day, I have sat for a whole day, mesmerized by the activity of my hands while life goes on without me.
         Back in my crochet heyday I used to make all kinds of things:

        Mitten and hat sets,   

...extra-long scarves,

...baby-doll sweaters, lacy barbie-doll gowns, lacy table cloths, Christmas stockings, a hemp throw-rug, and my favorite of favorites:

 afghans,

...afghans,

...and more afghans, such as  this one my father-in-law still uses in his assisted living,

     My father-in-law, Charlie Liszkay, 98 years old.

...or this one that I made for my in-laws'  queen-sized bed, though it ended up being 'way too big for their bed because I couldn't stop adding just one more row.

     Then a few years ago I said, enough.  I gave away all my yarn to a church knitting group that makes baby blankets and I've been free and clear of this particular addiction ever since.
      Until Donald Trump came along.
      Suddenly citizen-patriots began taking to the streets,    

...and everywhere I looked I saw pink knitted or crocheted kitty hats;

    ...on the news,

...on my social media,

...everywhere, a sea of pink yarn kitty hats.

   One day one of my Posse members even showed up at Panera knitting a kitty hat.

       All of sudden I was staring to think about those old crochet days.

     I started feeling a little twitchy when I walked by the yarn aisle at Meijer's.

      But I was all right.  Or probably would have been, until I realized  that my daughter, who intends to remain on the forefront of standing up for justice and human rights  (see posts from 1/21/2017 and 1/28/2017), does not own a kitty hat. 

     I decided that my daughter needed a kitty hat for up-coming cold-weather demonstrations, and that her husband, an equally impassioned citizen-patriot, should have a hat, too.  A tom cat hat, I decided to call my male version.
      Crocheting kitty and tom cat hats was the least I could do to support to the growing American resistance to Trumpian injustice.  It was my patriotic duty.
       So I returned to one of my old my old haunts and picked up four skeins of yarn, just four, no more than I absolutely needed, two in pink for my daughter's kitty hat, and two in brown for her husband's tom cat hat.  Just enough for two hats, no more.  I knew I could stop at two hats.
         I found on the internet an instructional video* for a super-simple crocheted kitty hat.  Here's the link to the one I used, in case anyone (who already knows how to crochet) would like to have it:

                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVuCMIegdvI&spfreload=10



         Then I dug deep into my sewing drawer,

...and pulled out my old paraphernalia. 
I slide the "L" hook from its slot,

   ...then I took a deep breath, wrapped a length of lovely pink yarn over the hook,

...and soon I was in that familiar old state of oblivious Nirvana, all my troubles and cares floating away on a pink cloud of yarn.

...or a brown cloud.

    A couple of days later I came down and the hats were finished.

     I then sent the kitty and tom cat hats to my daughter and son-in-law in Chicago, who were very happy with them.

     And their own kitties also love the box I sent the hats  in.

     I expect that's because the box was a kitty hat box.

      As it turns out, I didn't use up all the yarn I bought for the hats, so figured I'd crochet a couple of scarves.  I mean,  I'm just doing it to use up the yarn. 

     I can stop any time I want.

     * I strayed a little from the video in that I used single crochet stitches for the section of the hat that called for half-double crochets.  Also I used only the "L"- sized hook, not the "L" and the "J", as is used in the video.  If you don't own or can't find an "L" hook ("L"'s are a little hard to find, for some reason) you could use a "K" or "J" hook.