This hat was a commission. (Can’t say I ever thought I would be knitting a hat for a puppet…) I made this adult hat first just to get a feel for how I would make the puppet-sized hat, which I would have to design pretty much from scratch since the anatomy of a puppet head is not remotely similar to that of a human. For one thing, the highest point on a puppet head is occupied by the (rather protuberant) eyeballs, so a hat can not come down in the front at all. Second, the back of a puppet head is perfectly flat (a fact that is handily disguised by the “hair”), so a beanie or slouch style hat can’t be pulled onto the back of the head, either. It’s a really good thing that the client wanted an ear flap style hat, because I have no idea how else I could have constructed one with any expectation of it actually staying on the head. (It’s also a little bit ironic given that a puppet… or at least this puppet, in particular… has no ears.) I fully expected to make several of these until I stumbled upon something that would actually work. You could have bought me for a nickel when the first one fit.

I used the Snow Time Cap as a reference, basically using the ear flap instructions pretty much as written, and then doing my own thing after that. When joining the ear flaps to start the main body of the hat I cast on 6 stitches on each end (where the seam would come together for the back of the hat) and 16 stitches between the flaps for the front of the hat. I then worked about 4 rows even before beginning the crown decreases, which were adjusted for my starting stitch count of 60 stitches.

The design of the hat was based on an illustration provided to me by the client. (She is an author of children’s books, and the illustration is one from her next book due to be published in late 2014 or the early part of 2015.) Per her request, I used tassels instead of pom-poms, and the hat was done entirely in stockinette stitch with stripes in the colors that she chose. I also used 7” long 3-stitch i-cords for the ties and a 4-stitch i-cord for about an inch between the top of the hat and the attached tassel. The ear flaps and body of the hat were knit on a US size 8 circular needle, the finished edge trim on a US size 6 circular, and the i-cords on US size 4 dpn’s.

Illustration used with permission. © Susan Whitelock (author) and Cathi Dentler (illustrator) 2014. Lucy Loves Life: A Winter Walk in the Woods