For me, the end of August marks the end of summer. The leaves on the trees are beginning to change, acorns litter the lawns and walkways of my house, and the days are noticeably shorter than they were just eight weeks ago.

The countdown to winter has begun, and I noticed it first thing this morning as I stepped out the door to walk with my son to the bus stop.

Dressed in my everyday uniform of jeans and a t-shirt, I was surprised at the nippiness of the air, and headed back into the house to get a sweater in an effort to keep the chill at bay.

Once my son had safely boarded the bus, I headed back into the house for another cup of hot coffee. The chill of the morning before sunrise had reminded me that hat and scarf weather would be here soon, and that in turn, reminded me of a hat I began work on last February.

My personal standard for what constitutes “cold weather” is different from that of most people I know, but in the run up to St. Valentine’s Day, when it was what a lot of people here in the northern hemisphere think of as cold, I began work on what was then Eileen Tepper’s most recent hat design, the “slouchy beret” (which you can purchase here).

When we last saw this project, I had gotten this far:

Sometime not too long after that, I finished the hat, wove in the ends, and placed in it a box of stuff to send to one of my older son’s. Eventually, I got the box filled, packed it up, and sent it off.

And now, after months of nagging, I have a photo of the hat being worn by Gigi Berry. (You may recognize her as one of the style agents from “Ambush Makeover“):

The hat was wonderfully fun to make, and if you pay attention to what you are doing and don’t get interrupted, you can make this hat in 90 minutes to two hours.

If, like me, you get distracted and crochet with myriad interruptions, you can get it done in just under 3 hours.

Either way, you have an awesome hat when you are done that keeps the chill of winter at bay.

Related post: Dueling projects