Edward Gorey And The Raccoon Hat

Back when I was at university, my housemate made me a really awesome birthday present. He drew up a knitting themed poem, of his own composing, in the style of Edward Gorey. The sheet of paper was tucked into a copy of an Edward Gorey book, which I had mentioned I was interested months before my birthday. I had made my other housemate a hat and had asked Brennan what he'd like for his birthday, to which he replied, "A raccoon hat." I puzzled and puzzled over how to go about making the mask. As you will notice, Brennan very cleverly put the hat into the poem. 

Well, an embarrassing number of years have passed since I promised that hat. And the picture is hung up on my bedroom wall, reminding me constantly of the hat that wasn't completed....

Until now. Ta-da! Raccoon hat. I mailed it a few weeks ago, so hopefully it is on Brennan's head now. He's going for his PhD and said he planned on wearing it while teaching classes. I'm hoping for some photographic evidence of this happening.

Part of the design dilemma I had was figuring out how to get the mask to flip up and stay up. I thought about buttons and hooks. But after attaching the mask, it turns out that the stickiness of the wool keeps the mask in place all by itself.

I'm not sure if I should make this pattern available at some point. I've got so much on my plate. But if people are interested, I'll put it on the to-do list.