Those of you who know me in real life or online know that I loathe baseball. I'd rather watch paint dry. However, I do love slip stitch knitting. And I love knitting hats. And I love supporting success of any kind in my City. I found a stitch pattern in one of my plethora of stitchionaries, and thought to myself, "You know, if you work this in alternate directions it will make a herringbone pattern." And then after watching an episode of White Collar - the one where Neal steals a baseball and Peter reveals his baseball-loving past - I said to myself (outloud), "You know, if you use white yarn with the contrast color red, it will look like a baseball." And I said, "If you hurry you can whip this up into a hat for the 2014 baseball season opening day, and people will think you're part of the cool kids." So I did, and the Baseball Beanie was born.

Later on, to mitigate some of the hypocrasy, I decided to put the pattern to good use, by offering the pattern free for supporters of Halos of Hope while the Cardinals are still in the playoffs. If you want to participate, make a donation to www.halosofhope.org before we're out of the running, and ask for the coupon code. (The pattern is always available for purchase at .