Hurrah for lovely woolly hat action in the Winter time!

Many years ago, my friend Kim knitted me this hat.

It is so so beautiful and has been my favourite hat every winter since. At the time she gave it to me I asked her about the provenance of the pattern, and she explained that it came from a chemo hat website. We both laughed that laugh of young people who don't really think they'll ever get cancer.

And now here I am!! 

When the prospect of losing all my hair DURING WINTER became a reality, I quickly ramped up my hat collecting, mostly via donations from generous and crafty friends and family. But I just had to have another of these lovely hats, called, amazingly, the Amelia Earheart Aviator cap. I love it so!! I can't knit, so I sent the pattern out to some crafty knitting friends, and now have a couple more of these amazing hats in my special hat repertoire, each so unique that it's like having 3 different hats that are all related by their awesomeness - a super-soft most beautiful blue one from Linda, and a gorgeous pinky one from Carol that's a little bit bigger so perfect for sleeping, in addition to the lovely most gorgeous green with fancy embellishments from Kim. How special is that?!

In addition to my collection of aviation caps, I've also received a delicious fire-engine-red beanie from my Nana (instantaneously snaveled by Oscar), and couple of fab-o hats from my ma, including this perfectly-coloured crocheted rasta-hat-cum-beret, which is - wait for it - LINED IN FLEECE, so is officially the warmest hat I own. 

This is very very handy. I had completely underestimated just how much warmth my hair provided for my poor little noggin, which is now so exposed to the elements. Not that that's all bad. I absolutely love it when it's warm enough to go hat-less, to feel the sun and breeze on a part of my body that hasn't felt the sun and breeze since I was a teeny baby. But after about 3pm, when the sun sinks, the hat goes on, and stays on, til I'm safely inside sitting in front of the fire.

In addition to these gorgeous hats so kindly and warmly created for me by people I love, I also recently completed a hat for myself which I'm pretty bloody proud of. It involved me teaching myself a new crochet stitch (thank you YouTube!) and making a few false starts, and it was a challenge, but it was bloody well worth it because it's a pretty lovely hat, if I do say so myself. And my crochet confidence has increased exponentially!

Let's all hear it for triple crochet lattice stitch with a speckly rainbow trim- oooohhhhhh!

 When I fist started looking for hat patterns (when you're bald, and it's winter, I think multiple hats are definitely justifiable) I was a little bit frustrated because all the ones I liked were knitted, and learning to knit was just too much of a challenge at this point in my life. And then I found Knits for Life, who, amongst other things (like totally amaze-balls yarn bombing including a Very Hungry Caterpillar bike rack cozy!!!!!), boasts 'crochet patterns that any knitter would envy'. Hallelujah to that!

The top of the hat was actually the trickiest bit for me... Lots of counting - I'm a bit challenged in that department.

The pattern was lovely and easy to follow (once I got the hang of the new stitch), and easy to custom up a bit (I can't help myself) and I am very very happy with my hat. Probably going to make another one, sooner rather than later.

How about you? Have you taught yourself something new lately? It's such a great feeling!