The Roving Taster's Digest

The Cupcake Chronicle
Day 1 - casting on... two or three times

I have a new project. This is about food, still. But it’s not really. But in a way it completely is. I am, by nature, a nurterer. In this, I take after my mother, without a doubt. The reason I know this is because there is nothing I love more than planning (and sometimes not stopping to plan) and creating a meal or a dish that will later illicit some sort of ecstatic response from a room full of people I love.
Recently, however, I began to do this in new ways. I have always been inclined to go to my friends when they are sick; provide for friends in need; do something extra just to make their day – I most often try to do this with a food offering of some kind. Just yesterday I shared a cookie with my grandfather, Zaida, while we waited for my grandmother, Baba, in the waiting room of a medical clinic. Then I made sure we sat down almost immediately for breakfast. I suggested the first place I thought of. We drove by it on our way to the clinic. She was thrilled to see that oatmeal, the very thing she was craving just moments earlier, was on the menu. Thank you Humpty’s Family restaurant on 101st. I used to skip school there. It was nice to see the place again, and hear the music from the juke box. Not much has changed. They have a flat screen tv now. It was showing footage from the earthquakes in Indonesia. I should say that my Grandmother’s test went well.

But I digress. My new project, you see, is to create something special for someone else, in a way other than with food. In a manner of speaking… I am knitting a hat for my dear friend’s daughter. Caitlin is an angel and very smart and funny, just like her mom. She will be two years old on Hallow’een. I actually predicted that she would be born that day. Sort of. My friend was horribly overdue and I jokingly remarked that she was likely giving birth to a jack-o-lantern.

Anyway, I am sure she already has a pumpkin costume or two in her future. I saw this other pattern a year ago or more, and have been wanting to make it for her all this time. In a month’s time, I will have made a cupcake hat for Caitlin to wear on her birthday and any other day she likes. Would you like to watch as it comes into being? From a bunch of balls of yarn into a real thing? It will take time. I will make many mistakes. It is really quite a bit like cooking. With every mistake I must scrap the work and start over. Sometimes pieces are salvageable. By the end of the month I will have accomplished this goal. Watch my progress!