The things I do for love...

Man, oh man.

So, one of Mr. Ninja's dearest friends is spawning. The buddy and his lovely wife are expecting a baby (they don't know the gender, as the kid was pole dancing with the umbilical cord when they did the ultrasound) in the early New Year. Late last night, I was thinking of them and wondering aloud about what we should send them for the new baby. I'm suggesting typical things like cloth diapers, burp cloths, etc. when Mr. Ninja suddenly gets an odd gleam in his eye.

Mr. Ninja: "A baby hat."
Me: "Oh, ok. That's easy." (starts humming happily as stash diving commences)
M.N.: "But not just any baby hat. A brain slug."
Me: "A what?"
M.N.: (excitedly) "A brain slug! A baby brain slug hat!"

For those of you not in the geek know, there once was a television show called Futurama. And lo, it was good. Alas, it was also cancelled after only 3 seasons. But it's one of the all-time favorite tv shows of myself, Mr. Ninja, his friend, and also of his wife. There were a few episodes featuring small creatures called brain slugs, which were parasitical organisms that fed off of brain wave energy. Or something like that. Here's a quote from a site selling toy brain slugs:

The Brain Slug is a parasitic alien life-form, consisting of a clear, carbon-based gelatinous material. This wily being requires a host body to survive, as it has no brain of its own (unfortunately, one attached itself to Fry's brain and subsequently died of starvation). Once attached, the brain slug controls all of its host's thoughts, turning them into a zombie-like creature incapable of emotion or intelligent conversation.

And here's a pic for you.



So, I sat myself down with a copy of "Ten Things I Hate About You" (delightfully fluffy and brain free watching), and using a base pattern from Itty Bitty Hats, I whipped this up last night.



Pattern adjustments include: picking up stitches around the base, and randomly casting off two stitches at a time. I then knit the flaps each separately (oy, the weaving in of ends). The eye is knit with a small short row to get the slightly puffy effect, and the pupil is a piece of wool felt that I had lying around and stitched on. I'm still debating whether or not to block the hat to get the flaps to lie down flatter.

I have a feeling that Mr. Ninja is laughing to himself when he thinks of the new parents putting the hat on the kid during a particularly drooly day and saying "Well, usually...we have a pretty smart baby. We blame the brain slug for the lack of coherent conversation." I can't wait to see his reaction when I show him this silly thing.