instant hat (almost)

Westchester is not Brooklyn. I have my own personal standards for how I dress, but I do like to blend in a little. For yamim noraim, I was one of a handful of women in a shaitel. I won’t discuss the detailed thoughts on that, but I decided for sukkot I wanted a hat. Most of my hats are no longer nice enough for shul, even though I wear them all the times. The few that are do not mesh well with early autumn weather and are best for deep cold winter. I decided this Sunday night at about 10:30pm. Which meant I didn’t have much time to find or make one.

Monday (the 21st) I ran through Union Square and went to a few shops to try on ready made hats. I skipped shops I didn’t think would have anything and focused on the few that might. I thought a nice felt cloche would look nice. The ones that were in my desired price range looked horrid on me, and ones that were more than I would ever spend on a hat looked nice. I looked quickly but didn’t see berets at a price I wanted to pay or they didn’t have penny-friendly colours (aka grey or black).

So, I did what any self respecting knitter or crocheter would do. I got my butt over to a yarn shop (in this case the always awesome Lion Brand Yarn Studio) and threw myself at Tracey, crocheter and friend extraordinaire. She listened to my rushed babble of “need hat. stat. penny colours. fast. not wool.” and walked over to Vanna’s Choice and handed me two skeins of Dark Grey Heather and pondered my sanity of a 5mm (H) crochet hook. (That’s a tiny hook for the yarn’s weight. If one were to crochet normal tension or wanted a drapey fabric. My goal was structure and I crochet loose anyway.)

I didn’t really plan. I wasn’t sure when I started if I was making a beret or a cloche or what.

Approximately 2½ – 3 hours later I had a hat.

This is the result:

Ok, it’s not the final result, but that photo (self portrait) came out pretty nice if I do say so. I only added one round after the photo.

Here’s the process:

Ravelry Project Page with more details on my instant hat

It looks much better on my mommy (I was oohing to much to take her photo on Sunday) so I think I might send it to her and make myself another one.

However, I confess I did find a ready-made hat. And I like it.

On a whim yesterday (ok I was early for a meeting) I walked through H&M and found this. This isn’t a good photo of it, but it’s a very thin light weight beret. It was less than $4. it’s acrylic, but this is closer to what I had in mind. It is also perfect for this spell of warmer weather we are experiencing. Does it upset me I bought a knitted beret? No. The thread is superfine and it is black. I would not knit that by hand.

• Category: handmade
• Tag: crochet