As far as knitted gifts go I think hats work best. Everyone needs a good hat. They come in a million styles. They don’t take very long to knit. And they’re my favorite thing to knit! If you look through my Ravelry notebook you’ll see I’ve knit more hats than anything else.
When I was deciding which hat to make for Rick Berg I had narrowed it down to a few choices, my first being Berruti by Wendy Neal for KnitPicks.com. I also had a great idea to try to find yarn from North Dakota to knit the hat, but I didn’t have time to track any down. My back-up plan was to use Wool of the Andes (because I currently have a love affair with it), but I had to be sure Mr. Berg wasn’t sensitive to wool. I hoped someone who knew the congressman would read my blog and let me know.
Boy was I surprised when I friend of mine who works at The Forum in Fargo told me Mr. Berg was in town and would be at The Forum for a meeting and I was invited to ask him about my hat. Wow! I had all of ten minutes to prepare myself to meet a congressman.
So I met Rick Berg. He was very nice and seemed interested in what we knitting ladies and gents are up to. He looked over my patterns and chose Berruti as well. Also, he has no wool sensitivities and is not allergic to cats. Whew! I was told afterwards that I was very charming. Which is great because I was afraid I might have come off as a little nuts. I mean, I knit (and crochet). With a cat in my lap.
Proof
In the days of PlayStation, Xbox, iPhones, Kindles, Nooks and Wiis my favorite hobby is one that’s been around since before Leif Ericson landed in North America (I did mention my love of vikings earlier, right?).
I was able to knit Mr. Berg’s hat over the weekend. I am in love with this pattern. It’s a bit hard to take a picture of, but I assure you once it’s on a head it looks great.
My camera’s not the best so the colors got a bit washed out. It’s really a dark brown with beige trim.
I packaged it all up and wrote a letter to Mr. Berg.
In my letter I described why I knitted him a hat, and asked him to keep North Dakotans in mind every time he casts a vote in Washington. We’re hard-working people who help each other out with sandbags and snow shovels. In North Dakota we don’t care if you’re Republican, Democrat or somewhere in between (or even way off to the left or right) – we help our neighbors. That’s just how we roll.
Today is the scheduled “first wave” of hats to be sent. Most of the other knitters and crocheters will be mailing theirs, but since Mr. Berg’s local office is right here in Fargo I’ll be driving over on my lunch break to drop it off.
Thank you, Mr. Berg, for your service to the state of North Dakota. I hope you enjoy the hat! May it keep your head warm so as to prevent any hot-headedness.
