The Gift of Hats

I normally don't like knitting gifts, but I do find a great pleasure in knitting gifts for those that appreciate and love them with a very warm sincerity. It makes my heart just sing.

This year it was all a matter of hats.

For the holidays, my SIL put in an "order" for fish hats for the rest of the family. As this was an easy enough thing for me, I was more than happy to comply. The hats were, happily, a resounding success and were worn with much ado over the whole of the holidays, especially Eldest Neice, K, who loved her *PINK* and purple fish.

The year previous, I had given my BIL the trilobyte hat for the holidays, and his wife told me that he LOVED his hat and wore it nearly every single day; proclaiming it to be one of the warmest and comfiest hats he's ever had.

I got to see the hat upon arriving at the Family's house, as it was sitting ontop of a pile of other (unused hats). The poor thing had seen better days. It had been worn and stretched beyond the recognition of an actual hat; and it had two holes in it -- having caught on 'something'. SIL told me that he still wears it, despite the hole and despite it being stretched out. Despite it being superwash, BIL didn't want it being run through the washer lest it shrink.

I looked upon this poor abused hat with equal parts of joy and sadness. Joy because it is being worn and loved, as all knitted hats should be, but sadness at the amount of abuse it had taken. So, dutifully, I mended both holes (one small and one not so small) to the best of my ability and hand washed the poor thing. D I managed to get it back to somewhat it's normal shape, but alas, the thing is dead, Jim. So, I am much resolved to knit the poor man several hats for his birthday come March, and for the next Christmas holidays.

Back in the summer of 2010, I had spun some handspun yarn, which turned into a Stocking Cap. I knit it because I could and figured it would find itself to a good home (sooner or later) although I had a sneaking suspicion as to the actual who of the intended recipient.....because while I was knitting it (and shortly afterwards), he tried it on and told me how much he wanted a stocking cap.

As the holidays approached, I overdyed the colors of the stocking cap to be a more variegated set of purples and presented it to me shortly after Christmas (along with a warming bag -- a bag full of dried corn kernals to pop into the microwave). Sufficed to say, he loved both gifts and whipped off his own hat to promptly put on his new stocking cap and wear it for the rest of the day. And, later, I saw multiple photos of him on Facebook wearing the same exact stocking cap on different days.

And shortly after New Year's day, I managed to finish a hat for myself, but while it fits, it's rather large....but fits DH's head quite nicely. And, the coloration fits him more suitably than myself. When he put it on, he declared it warm and oh-so-soft....then proceeded to wear it for the rest of the night in the house. I guess I'll need to knit myself a new version of this hat (only slightly smaller....)