I am the cat who walks by herself

Or: how to crochet yourself part of a knight costume! (with a tutorial that probably makes no sense to anyone else)

This year Kendra's ordering us to dress as our childhood heroes and/or failed Legends of the Hidden Temple contestants.  Kendra assumed I'd be coming as Catwoman from Batman: The Animated Series, and once she said that, I realized she was completely right.

I've had Green Elevator's Black Kitty Hat pattern on my bookmarks forever (okay, probably when I was trying to think of stuff for the Ukrop's 10k back in March), and I had an entire skein of gray yarn, so obviously the universe was smiling on my love of Catwoman.

Some of the changes I've made to the pattern are I used worsted weight yarn and a K hook.  Because of my enormous brain, I had to add another row of increases to the pattern.  If you also have a large head an enormous brain:

INC every 5 stitches (1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, 1 DC, 2 DC)  until you get 60

And from there, follow the pattern (1 DC in each stitch).

Once the hat part was long enough, I marked off where I'd want the mask to come down over my ears.  Once it was marked, I did 1 DC in each stitch until I reached my stitch marker, then:

Ch 3, turn, DC in second stitch from hook, DC across until stitch marker, ch 3, turn, etc.

This step involved trying it on every so often to check the length.  Once the back/side flap got to be about chin length, I thought, "Hey, I'll just chain across and then I'll have the full neck part of the mask!  I'm absolutely brilliant!"  You remember those little knights I made out of corks?  Yeah, that was the basis for my cunning Catwoman mask plan.

So, high on my incredible genius, I first learned that it's not really possible to make chain stitches while looking at yourself in the mirror because you're still wearing your supervillain mask.  And after solving that problem, I made a chain, checked the length, then took the hat off again to add a few stitches in the opposite side.  And then I learned that acrylic yarn does not stretch enough for the neck hole I'd just made to fit over my head.

New Awesome Plan: make a flap, then figure out how people attach things to other things.  Velcro, safety pins, sewing self into mask so I could be sort of like Michelle Pfeiffer in Batman Returns.  Fortunately, I remembered that it's possible to sew buttons onto things and that we probably have a crapton of unused buttons floating around.

What really makes me the coolest kid you know is that this is a stray button from an article of clothing I may still own.  At some point in the near future, I could desperately need this very button to preserve the usefulness of some garment.  However, as a lazy person who only recently realized you did not need to be some sort of clothing manufacturer to sew buttons on things, I'm pretty much okay with choosing a homemade Catwoman costume over...something.  Maybe a skirt.

Now I'm ready to chase heathens out of the Holy Land!

My original plan was to use a black domino mask for the face part, but, as you can see above, it's not a good look for me.  Especially smiling.  Maybe the kitty ears are the key factor here, but I have a feeling I'll still look like a serial killer.  Who's a kitty.