It Was the Best of Hats; It Was the Worst of Hats

A coworker asked me to crochet a hat for her.  We found the perfect pattern for a fabulous pillbox hat crocheted in embroidery floss in a Vogue Knitting on the Go book called Crocheted Hats. 
It was designed by our own Ravelry designer Kathy Merrick and calls for tying two sets of over 60 hanks of embroidery floss together and forming them into a ball.  To tell the truth, that turned out to be the hardest (IOW, not hard at all) part of making this hat.

Crocheting the hat was a breeze, and it was so much fun to watch the colors change under my fingers.  I couldn't wait to finish -- and luckily I didn't have to because I think it took less than an afternoon to do it on a vacation day.

My coworker loved it!  She gleefully showed it to all our other coworkers leaving the building at lunchtime where she was trying it on and posing for my camera phone. See her smile:

***

***(Dramatic foreshadowing:  This was before we went to lunch.)

We had lunch a couple of blocks from the office, marred only by one tiny event.  As she was talking to me, she reached up and discovered an earring was missing.  A gold-sapphire-and-diamond earring.

(Here is the earring that wasn't missing:

)

I kept hoping it had fallen off into her clothing or her handbag, but no.  She left me at the restaurant and retraced her steps while I combed the restaurant floor.  Then she came back and I left with her and searched again.  Later that night, I happened to be walking in the same area and I searched again.  No earring.

She is a very gracious and spiritual person and assured me not to worry, "It's just a thing," she said.  But I know it was a very special thing given to her by a very special person and I don't think I'll ever think of this particular hat the same way again.

But wait!  A friend of mine just offloaded a whole bunch of embroidery thread on me that she wasn't using.  I'll just have to make another one!

I'll make it for my sister(-in-law) and make absolutely certain she isn't wearing earrings when she tries it on.