The Sunset Hat

Way back mid last year my Secret Pal sent, along with other goodies, a ball of Filatura Di Crossa 127 Print. I was delighted, since I’d fondled this yarn in the shops many times.


Each time I did, the yarn spoke to me. It said, “I’d make a fabulous hat”. Fondling my gift yarn, I heard it repeat the same suggestion.

“A hat,” it said. “You’ve got to make me into a hat.”

“No,” I replied, just as I had every time this yarn made suggestive comments to me before. “I don’t need another hat.”

A month or so back, having started Knit From Your Stash, I decided it was time to knit up that 127 Print. I dug the ball out of the stash.

“I’d make a fine hat,” it whispered.

I resolved to close my ears to the yarn. To ignore it’s seductive tones. The yarn was going to be a headband – or a ‘panta’. Wide and warm, it would keep hair from my face and warm my ears. I started knitting. The yarn bristled in indignation. It was so scratchy, I knew my poor ears would not be able to bear it. I frogged and considered fingerless mitts.

(“A hat,” the yarn said.)

Same itchiness problem, I guessed. So instead I knit a long rectangle in one sitting, all the time holding the vision of a smooth, square dictionary cover in my imagination. I sewed it up and slipped it on the dictionary. The rectangle gaped and stretched, refusing to lie flat and straight. It was shabby and awful. I unpicked it. What now?

“A HAT,” the yarn said.

So I basted the ends of the rectangle together and discovered the length exactly fit my head. Basting the top into an “x”, I tried it on. Cute… but really a bit too foofy for my tastes.

“But knit up in a basic hat pattern, I’d look great,” the yarn whispered.

“But you’re too scratchy!” I retorted.

It fell silent. I unpicked it and set the rectangle aside. Then I remembered Grumperina’s post about lining a hat with silk.

“See,” the yarn said triumphantly. “You can make a hat!”

Last weekend I took careful gauge measurements and frogged it. Then two night ago, wanting a quick, satisfying knit, I cast on for a hat. After I finished it yesterday morning, I went searching on the internet for silk yarn. I quickly realised that silk lining was going to cost as much as a three-course restaurant meal, so I went searching for cotton. Just when I was about to bid on some at ebay I remembered that I have some black Bendy cotton already in my stash.

So I fished it out. Picked up stitches. Knit and knit and knit and knit…

And there it is:


My new hat. Now I have to admit, the yarn was right. It does make a fine hat. And it’s being insufferably smug about the whole thing.


But I don’t mind. I love the colours. I love the geometricy spirally top.


I love the nice soft lining to protect my poor sensitive ears.
And when I downloaded the photos this morning, I found pics on my camera of the lovely sunset we had two nights ago. The colours remind me of those in the stripes of this yarn. So I’m calling this one the Sunset Hat.


The moral of this story? When the yarn talks, listen. (Either that, or see a shrink.)

7 thoughts on “The Sunset Hat

  1. Thankyou. The yarn must take all the credit, though. For sentient yarn, it has excellent taste.

  2. It is very perfectly a sunset! (And it’s a beautiful hat too) I’m remebering that lining trick for future reference, what a clever idea!

  3. You are right, the hat’s colours are echoed perfectly in the sunset. What a clever idea to line the hat too!!!

  4. Hi Trudi,

    Did you have photos in this post – I don’t seem to be getting your photos when I look at your blog. I really want to see the Sunset Hat!!

  5. Yep, there are heaps of photos. Try refreshing the page, or maybe Blogger is acting up so try again later

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