I like to be creative with my crochet projects, but I had a very strict patron for this one! My littlest son, once he seen that his brother had requested (and received) a crochet gift from Mama, decided upon a very specific hat. He wanted Spider-Man, but it had to go OVER his head, AROUND his neck, and had to have WHITE EYES (emphasis all his).

I did my best to make it exactly as requested, and even got him to compromise in having eye-flaps, just to soothe this Mama’s nerves, knowing that at least he’ll be able to watch where he’s going while flinging webs all around the city!

The whole process took about a day, in which he stood next to me and tried the hat on with each new row that I finished. On my lunch break and dinner break, he would solemnly ask “are you going to make my hat now, Mama?” every two minutes or so.

… and even though my embroidery skills are far inferior to my crochet skills, he was happy with the quickly-stitched-on webbing around the face.

The payoff, of course, is the absolute elation at his new mask, which he promptly put on the second it came off of my hook, and has not been off his head yet.