The Quest for Warm Ears

Friday night I decided I want a warm hat, which was a good thing because on Saturday morning a little doggie stole my other one.

My regular hat for walking the dog is a revised version of Shedir, made from a mohair blend. It's comfortable, stylish and warm. But when those arctic winds start blowing it is entirely insufficient. After a walk in the wind, my head and ears were aching. My husband was wearing his Triple Patterned Watch cap in the windy cold and reported that his ears were just fine. So I decided to make myself one.

While I really like the original, I decided to get funky with it by incorporating some different designs from the book Small Sweaters. I really love that book. One day, I'm going to knit some lucky kid a sweater from that book! Though I've also contemplated making an adult sweater by using a heavier gauge yarn. In the mean time, I find a lot of inspiration from the colors and patterns.

This is a stash buster hat, because I used leftovers from Jim's watch cap and another hat from Charlene Church's Hat's On! book that I had modified. The yarn is Mission Falls 1824 Wool, which is a soft super wash. I used all four different colors in this design and I have less than a skein combined as leftovers. It gave me great satisfaction to use that yarn up!

Besides the patterning, another modification to the hat is the picot turn. The pattern asks you to purl a row, but I wanted to see what it would look like with a picot turn. Because I also changed colors, I think the edge looks like it has little beads. The total effect is a folksy, feminine hat. And it sure is warm! Wouldn't you know it, the temperature went up?

I slipped on the ice Saturday morning at the dog park, and a chocolate lab was giving me kisses, so my hat fell off. A little Jack Russel scooped it up quick as a wink and took off. He had to hold his head high so he could run with it, and he had to run because all the other dogs started chasing him. I was stuck on the ice still because I was laughing so hard. But some nice gentlemen helped me up and the owner of the Jack Russel caught his dog and rescued my hat. So Sunday I was wearing my new hat, even though it was too warm, because I hadn't had a chance to wash the doggy one yet.