When I was in the first grade I had to memorize two things: the Preamble to the Constitution, and the first stanza and chorus of William Gaston and E.E. Randolph’s “The Good Old North State.” We sang this every Friday in a school wide assembly. There’s a long story about my life in elementary school, but that’s for another time.

“We the people” is about as far as I can remember of the Preamble, but I remember every word of TGONS. It didn’t make a lot of sense as a kid. It still doesn’t make a lot of sense as someone that has a kid. At any rate, for some reason I thought about the song a few days ago, and that got me thinking about Sheldon Cooper’s Fun With Flags…not really, just flags.

Ironically, what came of it was not the NC flag, but rather the SC one. Since that’s where Smee grew up, graduated from college, and where we first lived when we were married, when people ask where we’re from, we usually say there. Besides, for anyone that doesn’t live in one of the Carolinas, they’re both the same thing, anyway (for the record, they aren’t. At All.).

This hat took some tinkering, but I’m incredibly proud of it. It’s the first thing I’ve made that didn’t come from a pattern:

It’s the palmetto and crescent moon of the SC state flag. Smee got a huge kick out of it and wants one for himself. Unfortunately, I didn’t write down how I made the palmetto.

After I finish the looooooooooooong list of projects for other people I now have (apparently one or two sales on Etsy will build your street cred immensely), I’m planning on Colorado version of this. Thank goodness we’ve been in states that have simple flags.

Continue reading →