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Hat Calamity

 Bloody Kate the Resident Shrew has eaten a hole in my Winter hat! And she’s run off with the magnificent bobble, too. I discovered this a couple of days ago when I was giving the laundry a post-‘swallow have now flown’ sweep and tidy, and almost, but not quite, lost my unbending tolerance of the Annoying Habits Sometimes Displayed by Nature’s Creatures. Of course, the hat vandalism is my fault completely because a) I know Kate the Shrew is resident in the laundry and b) I shouldn’t, therefore, have left my Winter bobble hat in there. The combination was never going to be good. 

After perusing all sorts of lovely replacement hats on t’internet (widening my search into other areas after  a ‘what would you like for your birthday?’ request from Lord Malarkey) I decided, in the spirit of reuse, recycle, re-whatever else one is encouraged to do in these stricken times, to make a second Winter Bobble Hat. After all, I had made the first. It wouldn’t take long. And I had a scarf (also handmade) which, after an initial outing, was obviously going to be waaaaay too hot to wear on a regular basis. I’m not a massive fan of scarves. I have a natural discomfort for wearing things around my neck. I can’t really cope with a polo neck jumper. I think I must have been strangled in a previous life. Therefore, I unravelled the scarf, and in doing so discovered how efficient I am at weaving in loose ends. (Sighs….rolls eyes…)

This is my woolly hat maker…


It came in a set of 4 - a tiny one for babies and toddlers, a slightly bigger one for children or adults with impossibly small heads, this one for the average sized adult head and the biggest one for silverback gorillas. Or Mr Pumpkin Head. It’s basically French knitting on a large scale using a hooked implement that can only be described as vicious. There’s no seam so sew up, and creating the brim of one’s hat is easily executed. However, if like me you are a bit of a tense crafter i.e you like your stitches on the TIGHT side because TIGHT = NEAT, then making a hat in one sitting makes your index finger and thumb go numb, which is why I’m sitting here this morning with fuzzy fingertips. Nerve damage, I expect. Some kind of repetitive strain injury. I really ought to pace myself with these things. 

Here is my new recycled but as yet unbobbled Winter hat…

I don’t know if I’m going to add a bobble just yet. I’ve eyed up my unravelled scarf wool and reckon I have enough for a second hat. Once my fingers have regained their feeling, of course. Or perhaps I should charge on ahead with Hat Two and save myself a second bout of fuzzy fingers? Anyway, a second hat would be great, wouldn’t it, to keep in the car maybe in case I find myself stuck in deep snow drifts over Winter and need to conserve body heat whilst awaiting rescue? But what if I add a bobble to Hat One and then find I’ve not enough wool for Hat Two and it ends up looking like beret? Heather can carry off a beret. I’m not sure I can. I’m not sure I want to, to be honest. 

It’s National Hair Day, apparently. Here I am in a slightly crazy old lady photo wearing the new hat. It is also useful for covering up wild hair that needs washing…



Comments

Anonymous said…
What a great hat! I have a few of those thingies but not had the patience for them yet. I can almost hear them calling now. I’ll ignore the call of the wild things a little longer. ( Almost got poetic there).
KJ
Denise said…
It is a good hat, KJ. It is very, very warm because it is made from super chunky wool. More than enough to cope with our British Winters which I appreciate are nothing compared to the Winters in your part of the world! Go on - make a hat! You know you want to! 🙂

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