A Very Neighborly Hat

You know how sometimes your neighbors are kinda awful, and they're always loud, and they never help you with anything but always need to borrow your tools?  And sometimes their pets come into your yard and they install a sensor light above their garage but it shines right at your house?  Well... WE are that neighbor.  We are, without a doubt, a plague on our street.  We moved in and brought destruction and decreased property value to our quiet little cul-de-sac.  

That last bit may be a slight exaggeration but the rest is, sadly, 100% accurate.  Every time it snows, our neighbors snowblow our driveway for us.  We have a snowblower, but it doesn't work quite right and we swear every summer we're going to fix it before winter and we never do.  To make this even worse, they're usually finished before we've even gone out to start shoveling so we never lend a hand with their snow removal.  We're awful.

I said last winter I was going to make a hat as a thank you.  I didn't.  Because I'm awful.  This winter I started to make a hat but then it got pushed aside for another project and wasn't finished.  Because I'm awful.  Then it was March and I figured it didn't make sense to make a winter hat in the beginning of spring so I vowed to make one for next year.  

Then snowpocalypse hit.  We didn't have power for 5 days.  Five.  Days.  During this time, our neighbors brought us bottled water from their own stash.  Because they're good neighbors.  So maybe March wasn't too late to make a hat.  

I sat down, used Michael's favorite pattern, and got to work.  I was moving right along, and then I saw it.  Stupid.  Broken.  Cable.

I know most people wouldn't see it.  Even some knitters probably wouldn't be able to find it without close inspection.  It's easy to see in a zoomed-in image, not so easy to see when looking at the project as a whole.

But I would know it's there.  And in the highly unlikely instance that my neighbor was showing off his new hat to an expert knitter and THEY noticed it, a shame would descend upon my house even more than it is already.  That would not do.  

So I put in a lifeline and tore out a few inches.  It had to be done.  And the finished project was worth it.  

I haven't seen my neighbor since giving him the hat.  Obviously because he doesn't want to be asked to do any more chores.  But I'm going to assume he loves the hat and his head has never been more warm or more comfortable.  Of course.  

Thanks, Tim.  And we're sorry.