Were you a girl scout?

So I found those little badges that are on the sidebar at the Cast On podcast. They are Knitting Scouts badges and you can read more about them (and maybe find one for yourself) here or read on here:

This one is the Proselytize Knitting Badge. It's earned by presenting knitting in a positive light without referring to ""hipness", grandmothers, and yoga". I think I've earned this badge... and I've got a group of 20 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders knitting after they finish their assignments to prove it!

This is the MacGyver Badge I, and it's earned by using non-knitting tools in a knitting-related way. Sure, I've used paperclips as stitch markers (and once, though not entirely successfully, as a yarn needle). I've also used chopsticks to teach my friends daughter to cast on and knit while we were out to eat (this is the benefit of living in Japan--no matter what kind of restaurant you go to, there are always knitting needles, er, chopsticks on the table!)But I think the instance that truly earns me this badge is when I used 5 sharpie markers as double-pointed-needles when I realized that I didn't have any DPNs over size 4 or 5 and needed something much, much larger.

This is the MacGyver Badge II, and it's kind of the opposite of the level I badge... this is using a knitting tool in a non-knitting way. So that would be like the time that I used a #7 to reach under a bookshelf to try to slide out something that had fallen back there. Or the time I used a stitch marker to hold earrings and necklace slides in my travel bag when going on a trip (the only catch is, you have to choose only earrings that have some kind of hole in the design so you can fit the end of the stitch marker through... so no studs). Even David earns this bag (much to my chagrin) by using my knitting needles as back-scratchers. I hate that, so I only allow it in an absolute emergency...but who knows how many times he's done it when I've been out of the house or out of the room!

This is the "I've Knit Objects with No Conceivable Practical Application" Badge. The description on the Cast On site states that "recipients of this badge are those "special" campers which somehow missed the mark of their intended application". Now how on earth could that not be me? Most of the "experimental" things that I've made have since been frogged (and with much effort) forgotten. But it's nice to know that if (when) it happens again, I can look at that sock that has no opening (that was an attempt at cuff-down magic loop last weekend)

I wish there were more badges, like "I've Frogged an FO" or "I Knit in Public".
Oh, and I wish there was a sash!