Spin Journal #7: Cooking Up Something Wild

After stewing, simmering, and baking the "found" Romney to get some truly wild yarn, I've knitted a silly hat based on a pattern for a South American chullo hat. For some reason, this hat has earned the nickname of a "Jayne Hat," after appearing on a character in the TV show Firefly (which I've never seen). The hat itself is a simple stockinet cap with ear flaps, but trimmed out with all manner of yarn braids. Since starting the hat, I've noticed it appearing in all sorts of unusual places, including on the head of Ron Weasley in the 3rd Harry Potter movie.

The Cherry/Blue Berry Kool-Aid Colortwist ended up with the colortwist spaced far enough apart that the yarn self-striped. To make it a truly "unique" (is that code for "ugly"?), I put several yarn braids sprouting out of the crown. More yarn braids on the ends of the ear flaps keep them from curling up like overcook calamari (a problem with stockinet knitting); the individual braids looked a little skimpy, so I combined them into 4-braid plaits.

I'm now the proud owner of a completely silly, one-of-a-kind, warm hat to wear at cold fiber-related events. One thing about this hat: everybody will know it's mine. Who else would make or wear such a hat? Who else would wear such a hat? The darling, long-suffering, and ever-patient husband consented to serve as my model for these photos of my latest creation.