in which

My most reluctant model shows you the most whack gift to leave my hands in a while. My nephew requested  "one of those hats  with earflaps long enough for hand  pockets".
 
So I made one.  Dave truly hates to model, especially something as unsubtle as this.
 
Except it actually turned out kind of cool.  Plus, I said Bobo could be in the photos. Because, you know, nothing enhances an improvised crocheted earflap hat with recycled sweater pockets more than an American Bulldog.
 
I am particularly pleased with the pockets. They're the cuffs of an old felted sweater, cut open and upside down. The whole shebang is crocheted around with some Cascade Eco. It pulled it all together.* 
I started with the Vida Chullo pattern, sorta, kinda, and then winged it from there.** The yarns are Cascade Eco Wool in a few colors (the light turquoise main color, and the dark red, and the brown outline. There's also some nice gray and some purple alpaca , brown Valley Yarn Berkshire, and other odds & ends.It gives Dave a kind of old surfer hippy look. Which is pretty much his style anyway, minus the surfing, minus the old (don't let the white  beard fool you).  It's really comfy. The pockets will fit my tall nephew just right. The usual 18-22 year olds who can be found here weekends actually approved. Huh. Who woulda thought? Had to show  those pockets again. I'm dying to use more of that felted sweater and make myself some mittens with the same edging.

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* Yes, that is a  The Big Lebowski reference. Tell me the Dude wouldn't wear this hat thingy?
** I crocheted because it goes super fast, and I figured I'd be doing lots of ripping back. Which is so much easier in crochet than in knitting.  My crochet skills, though, are kind of naive.

PS. I tried to do this as a 15 minute blog burst. Ha! Not even close. It takes me that long to decide which photos to use, and another 15 to clean up my spelling & grammar mistakes.