The down-side of using yarn as packing material . . .

. . . is that when our move date gets pushed back I can't knit anything. I am nearly finished with Baby Notre Dame Letterman sweater number 2, and eager to start on the "Golden Dome" hat I have half-designed in my head (see below for details). I was hoping to use either beige or gray yarn for the bottom; however those specific skeins are being used to pad certain fragile objects packed in boxes, stacked in my bedroom. Problem is I don't know which boxes contain which yarn. I didn't think to document which skeins were padding which boxes, because I thought I would be UNPACKING them soon!!! sigh.

My original goal was to move on June 11 . . . it being the 20th, I'm sure you have guessed that THAT plan did not come to fruition. The good news is that we close on Thursday at 4pm (YEA!!!). Bad news is that the movers we had on hold are not available on Friday, and the building does not allow weekend moves, and the closing Thursday is too late in the day to move afterwards. More bad news is that between the 27th and the 3rd is the movers' "peak" rates, so it would cost us more to move on Monday. grrr.

So right now we're waiting to hear back on what that higher rate would be (we might just have to swallow it . . . that's what she said). If it's too much, we'll just wait until "peak" is over, and move July 5th (screwing up our Independence Day family plans AND Chris's Birthday plans) if they even do "holiday" moves, or wait until July 9th . . . a full 3 weeks from now!!! double sigh.

Anyway . . . the Golden Dome hat. I wanted a hat to go with the Notre Dame jackets, and any true Domer knows that their true symbol is the Gold Dome of the "Main Building" on campus.

(Side note: you'd think that the most iconic building on campus would have a cooler name than "Main Building", wouldn't you?)

I found Jane Tanner's "Rib-a-Roni Hat"

The pattern has 16 wide ribs that come together evenly at the top (instead of spiraling); I am going to widen them and only have 8 ribs.

The bottom will be folded up and have a zig zag pattern to represent the "gables" (I know they're not true gables, but I can't think of a better word). I would love to use a "twisted knit" stitch, if I can figure out how to make the colors work. I did a twisted knit on the washcloth shown below, and I love how it makes a raised, diagonal knitted line.

If you look at the photo of the building, you can see why I would want the gray or beige yarn that is hiding at the moment. I think I might just give up and use white and blue (since I'll have some leftover when I finish the jacket). I also don't think I'll be able to replicate Mother Mary on the top of a hat, but I'll see what I can do, in a non-blasphemous sort of way.