Reindeer Hat

As was mentioned on another page, my head is a bit on the large side. As a result, it's kind of hard to find winter hats that fit me the way I want them to... covering my ears. Unless I were to purchase something with earflaps or with a sports logo on it, I was pretty much out of options, and was living in a sea of misery... the misery of undersized hats.

I browsed the little booklets at Ben Franklin for a hat pattern that would provide ideal noggin coverage. I came across a booklet by Patons called Cabin Fever. It had a whole bunch of patterns in it... not only a hat pattern, but sweaters, mittens, blankets, socks... a whole bunch of stuff. But what got my attention was the young lady on the front wearing a huge-ass reindeer hat. Her ears looked warm. She had a funny-looking guy hugging her, wearing a similar hat that had a snowflake on it. There was a goofy tassel on it that I wasn't nuts about, but I figured I just wouldn't include it on there. I picked out some yarn that was 100% merino wool and that supposedly had the same weight and gauge as the Patons yarn the pattern recommended. One was bright red, which is my favorite color to wear, and one was white. Then I went home.

There were many signs that this project would turn into a disaster. First of all, the entire project-choosing and purchasing of yarn involved a very abbreviated investment of time and thought. Secondly, the pattern was rated "Intermediate," and I had only been knitting for a month and had no wise knitting sages to assist me. Thirdly, I didn't make a gauge swatch (a frequent error in my earliest knitting days). To top it off, I didn't really spend any time reading up on how to knit with more than one color... intarsia, Fair Isle or otherwise. I thought it would be more fun to just go with the flow. Uh oh.

Yeah, I got the chart right, the colors right, blah blah. But every time the color changed, I cut the yarn and left a huge hanging strand. This meant that I was left with about eighty kajillion strands hanging from the back of this reindeer. I still haven't fixed this. Other than the strange bulge from all this hanging yarn, you can't really tell.

I knitted the hat in Large/Extra Large size. For some reason, either because I failed to measure my head, or because I didn't make a gauge swatch, the hat turned out to be really really big. It's supposed to be big, but I don't think it was meant to be quite this big. Whoops. Because the hat was so big, I didn't have a choice but to make the tassel, which I admit grew on me. The tassel kind of weighs down the top so that the top hangs over the back, instead of puffing up like some misshapen tam-o-shanter. I had to make the tassel twice... because the hat was so freaking huge, I had to make a heavier tassel to make the top hang over. But it covers my ears!

Frighteningly, it didn't occur to me until after I was most of the way through that my winter hat had actually become a Christmas hat. Bright red. White. Reindeer. Santa-like tassel. Hmm. I'm not really crazy about Christmas apparel anyway... it ticked me off that I was restricted from wearing my huge toasty hat for three-fourths of the winter months.

Anyway, the hat turned out pretty well, considering. If I'm in a goofy Christmas mood around Christmas time and there's a Christmas cold snap, you might see me wearing it. Otherwise, enjoy watching me model it on this page. It's not Christmas, but what the hell?

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