A very interesting aspect to Aimee Borst’s Mr. Bone Headz Pop Off Head crochet pattern is that one toy has the ability to shapeshift and become another entity entirely, and while I found the mummy head very engaging, I was also curious about the other options, particularly the shrunken head.

When I was a child, as was the custom of the time, my closest friend was also my most proximate friend—she lived across street from me. In the later summer, when the fig tree in her family’s backyard would fully fruit, her father took the excess figs and dried them.

He had an assortment of racks that he set up outside to do the drying, but one year, as a result of an unseasonable rain, he had to bring the not-quite-dry figs into the house, and he carefully placed the racks in the oven at a low heat.

“My dad’s shrinking heads!” my friend announced when I came over to play. I knew he wasn’t really shrinking heads in the oven, but the idea stuck with me, and I was reminded of that rainy afternoon so many decades ago when I saw the “shrunken head” option for Mr. Bone Headz.

It can be interesting to try on a new look and see how it changes the way we feel about ourselves, and the newly minted Mr. Bone Headz seemed just as curious as I about the potential for transformation:

He followed my progress all afternoon.

Parts of the work on the new head went quickly, and parts of it did not. I had been cruising along with the crochet wind at my back when I stopped to work on the features.

In addition to a head, there were eyes to be crocheted and secured, a mouth to be embroidered and four tufts of hair to crochet. As usual, I grossly mis-estimated the time I would need to get it done, but then, eventually, I did:

Mr. Bone Headz seemed curious about his new crochet companion, so I helped him try it on:

I am very used to how Mr. Bone Headz looks with the mummy head on, but I have to admit, the shrunken head is also perfect in its own way, and with three more heads left to crochet, I will move forward, one stitch—and one head—at a time.