The other day I headed over to Ravelry for some reason I no longer specifically recall, when I noticed that the homepage had been changed. There were six projects featured that related to Thanksgiving in someway, one of which was a crochet turkey hat designed by Kristin Hankins.

In the wake of the holiday, I found myself unable to resist the siren call of the turkey hat, so with Ms. Hankins’ excellent directions, a 5.0 mm hook, and some yarn from my stash, I got to work.

I started with what I think of as the foundation of the project:

Using some interesting increases, the result is a hat that seems to be an easy fit to most heads (based on an informal survey of me having everyone who dared come near me while I worked on the project try it on). I could also see this excellent shape being used as the basis for a variety of animal inspired hats.

But since it is Thanksgiving, and since I had already made the hat in a color suitable for a turkey, I continued with the project as planned, crocheting the various decorative elements that would transform a helmet into a turkey hat:

Then, using one of my Clover bent-tipped needle, I was able to secure the pieces and bring order to the project:

That hat was not only fun to make, it taught me some new ways to think about how increases can be used to create shapes, and I can hardly wait to use what I learned.