I parted ways with Stephen King sometime in the, oh, I'd say mid 90's. I believe the book that tipped it for me was The Tommyknockers. I barely made it through to the end of that one. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I didn't really "read" the last few chapters so much as skimmed them. I couldn't get past the horrible fate of the dog Peter. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a dog lover, vegan or PETA activist. It's just that the world is such a shitty place with too many real world horrors that I was no longer entertained by reading make believe ones. If I ever was entertained by them. Though I must have been on some level because I read damn near everything Mr. King had written up to this point and a couple of things after.

But, the more stories of his I read with situations like this, the more they bothered me. It could have had something to do with having children of my own. I could visualize the things that happened to the characters happening to my babies. It's silly I suppose, but how I felt. This discomfort may have been magnified by the Tommyknockers, but began in earnest with The Stand. Not to drag out my point more than necessary, but when one of my favorite characters in that novel bit the dust, I was pissed.

The actual end of the road for me and Stephen King came with The Regulators. I read the first chapter, put it down and never picked it back up again. I never picked up another Stephen King book again for another twenty one years. I was determined to never let what I viewed as negativity back into my life again. Then the JFK assassination changed my mind.

I don't remember how I stumbled upon it, but I discovered 11.22.63. Not the event obviously, but the novel. I have always loved the concept of time travel and love stories written around said concept. I believe most Americans are intrigued by the Kennedy assassination and the thoughts of..... what if?. I'm no exception to this so I begrudgingly decided to go against my prior vow to never again read a SK novel and read this one.  It was of course a great read. I'm happy I read it. When it was over I felt the same disappointment that I used to feel when I would finish one of his books. I didn't want the story to end. He's just that amazing of a writer.

I was still mad at him though. How could he kill off so many great characters? How can he write about such terrible things? I watch a lot of YouTube and began to watch some videos of interviews with him. A picture started to form for me of who he is as a person. Next I read his novel On Writing. It completed the picture for me. Well, it's mostly complete. I don't think we can ever completely understand what goes on in the mind of others. He states in this book that his characters tell their own stories. I think that's a load of crap. But my opinion on that subject doesn't matter. It's his creative process after all, not mine. So who am I to say it doesn't happen that way for him?

What I first discovered in reading On Writing is that SK is a nice guy. Really. I found myself liking him despite my anger at what he's written. He's genuine and would probably be really fun to hang around. The second thing I discovered was about me and not him. I discovered that any problems I have with what he writes are mine and not his. Being angry at him is just silly and meaningless. He's a great author and has a right to write whatever he wants. I don't have to read it. I don't have to like it. I've not forgiven him, because he doesn't have anything to be forgiven for.

I've gotten a couple of his newer books to read. I haven't started them yet. I haven't decided whether I will actually read them. But I have decided that SK didn't deserve my anger for twenty one years. Deep down I think he's really like that goofy guy you knew in high school. And honestly, who could be mad at that guy for longer than ten seconds?!

I just completed this deceptively adorable earflap hat. The pattern called to me on Ravelry.  It said.... knit me. I'm so damn cute! You have that nephew on his way and he will need a hat to go with the sweater that you have finished. I'm super easy and waaaaayyyy precious.  So, I listened to the lying pattern. I cast on the requisite number of stitches for the smallest hat. I finished the first rows before beginning the earflaps and that's when the trouble started. I have done short rows in the past and while I'm not a fan, they don't scare me either. I started to work them as written in the pattern and got stuck after the first turning row. I returned to Ravelry and researched the completed earflap hat projects for better instructions on working the short rows and found a really great set written by juliecloseknit that helped me jump that particular hurdle.

Next, I wanted to add stripes to match the ones on the aforementioned sweater I had completed. Sheesh. Who would have thought that stripes in garter would be such a pain in the ass? And would look so shitty once they were completed?!!! Clearly not me because I had never done them before. I tried a few methods to complete the stripes including just giving up on garter altogether and doing them in stockinette. But in the end I went back to garter because it just looked better. Better is relative here. It looked better than complete and total ass, so that's what I ended up using.

After this it was on to the decrease rounds. Yes, this was almost as much fun as getting my teeth scraped at the dentist. I must have ripped those rounds out at least four times before I managed to get them right. Paying close attention while knitting is just not my strength. I prefer to not have to think about where I am in the row, and did I pass those stitches or knit them and why the hell do I have more stitches than I'm supposed to?!!????!!!! Arrgggg!!!!!!!

I wish the seam in the back didn’t look so sloppy. (Right hand pic) But it was either completing the rounds the way I did, which was to reverse direction each round so each is a knit round. Or complete the garter by knitting one round then purling the next. I chose the reversal method. If I do garter in the round ever again, I’ll try the other way and see if I’m any happier with that result. In the end, it is a cute hat and I think it will fit well when the little guy makes his debut in December. But, I doubt very highly that I will ever attempt to make this lying little hat ever again.