"Finished". . . right.

Here I am, high-jump fiving my best friend Oscar in celebration of us both being DONE with college. Thing is, there's a good chance that at some point in our lives one (or both) of us will attend graduate school. So, in reality, we're not really done with college altogether. Rather, for now we can concentrate on other things. . . and it's likely that, like many things in life, those things will bring us full circle; in this case, back to school to get a higher degree.

Getting your diploma has a feeling of finality akin to binding off a piece of knitted work. Nothing really jazzes me up like taking that last stitch off the needles and holding my finished something-or-other in its entirety. Yeah, sometimes there's seaming and blocking to be done. . . but the moment the garment is bound off it really takes its place as a finished object.

Or so I thought. A little hat I knitted up for Sam, the Wilderness Beanie, reminded me that no object is ever really finishd. The hat reemerged from the depths of his closet while he was moving this past weekend. I asked him if he'd model it for me since I have yet to get any photos of it for this here blog.

Now I wish I hadn't asked him to put it on.

All I could think was, "Oh, that hat looks wrong somehow". The hat had a few problems to begin with. I didn't do a gauge swatch, and like an idiot just kind of guessed about how many stitches I'd need to begin with. Sam's got a huge noggin so I figured that if it turned out big it would just fit right; all the other hats I've knit him are a tad snug. In all fairness, the size is actually pretty close to being right, but the ribbing isn't doing its job. Result? A hat that sloshes around on the head of the wearer because there's no ribbing to keep it snug.

I decided it needs to be fixed. This yarn was expensive ($22 a skein!) and I had such high hopes for it. . . it deserves to be something perfect. Of course Sam says the hat is fine, but what does he know (joking, joking). I think it needs earflaps. I think the weight of the flaps will hold it on his head better, and I think the rugged, textured look of the hat would be completed by the addition of earflaps.

So I'm off to unfinish a finished object. I can't help but think what implications that has for my education.