I haven’t had the best of luck making Andrew a hat. The last saga was chronicled in the notes for Mikey’s beanie link text , but to summarise let’s just say the stakes were high.

Andrew mentioned just before Christmas that he was going skiing in Canada in January and wouldn’t mind a ski hat. Enquiries revealed that he meant a hat with ear flaps, like the cool kids wear.

A note is needed here about Andrew’s fashion sense. Lovely boy, just adorable, but the sort of bloke who feels polar fleece is appropriate attire in any social situation. My sister and I take it in turns to drag him into the shops every season and force him to buy clothes from suppliers not known for their quality hiking goods. He’s also quite conservative so you can imagine just how much my mind boggled at the thought of him in an ear flap hat.

“With a pom-pom?!” I asked?

“Why not?!”, he said.

Heaven help us.

I emailed him a picture of the Jayne Cobb hat, just to check we were on the same page.

The email text went something like: “Are you sure this is what you want? It’s going to look like some Peruvian village is missing its idiot”.

My warmth and kind nature ensures my wide circle of friends is completely devoted to me.

Ignoring my words, Andrew liked the picture. Yes please, he said, but I prefer greens, blues and purples.

Having by now grasped the idea that dignified restraint would not be a theme of this project, I found some Noro yarn in retina-melting shades of green, purple and blue. Then I hit a snag (note clever use of knitting pun here).

The Noro Silk Garden felt vile. It was scratchy and harsh and I couldn’t imagine wearing it as a hat. It would be cosier to knit up steel wool. And not to be unkind, but Andrew is what we could call follically challenged and would feel every itch.

Luckily the fabulous lady in Morris and Sons came to my rescue and suggested using the Noro for part of the hat and something softer for the bits that matter. Genius!

Hello, baby alpaca. I choose navy, channelling my inner Miss Marple (“Navy goes with everything”) and was thrilled by its softness and warmth. I also invested in a pom-pom maker … a purchase I’d never anticipated making.

A final trawl of Ravelry yielded Kat’s pattern and away I went.

I made a few changes to the pattern: like Kat I loathe dpns but I cope by doing the decreases on two circulars, so I made the hat in the round and saved myself a seam, at which my skills match those of Edward Scissorhands. I also did the ear flaps in garter stitch and added a few stitches to them and to the overall count to compensate for using 8 ply wool.

The ear flaps and the first six rows were done in the Noro, then I switched to the alpaca (heaven!) for the main bit. A couple of random garter-stitch rows in Noro to make it pretty and I was done!

The pom-pom doubled in size after I washed the hat ($#@^ Noro) but I called it “quirky” and refused to re-do it. Itsagift suggested it would be a safety feature that allowed helicopter rescue crews to spot Andrew buried in an avalanche - so helpful.

The hat’s gone off to Andrew and I await his feedback …

UPDATE

Poor old Peruvian Village Idiot Hat. Andrew liked it and took it on his holiday but managed to leave it on a bus at Denver airport. It only lasted a week!

If any Denvernians (?) read this, please keep an eye out for the hat and wish it well in its new adventures.