Last week, just before I left for a weekend of sunshine and surf, I got a message from fellow crocheter, Eileen Tepper, asking me if I would test a pattern for a hat she had designed.

I love Eileen’s hats, so I was delighted to be asked and more than delighted to say yes.

Given that I am trying to use what I have so that it is not just insulation for the attic of my house, I looked over the yarn options that were available to me. To my shock, I found these two skeins of gray:

Gray is a color I tend to buy on an as needed basis, so I don’t know how I ended up with more than one skein, but gray seemed a good choice for a hat to be worn in the fall or winter. Additionally, the gray in question is light enough for the stitches to be seen easily which is a good quality for yarn to have when trying a pattern for the first time.

Having selected the yarn and found the hooks I needed, I sat down to make the hat.

The pattern was, as all of Eileen’s patterns are, carefully thought out and easy to follow. The hat I worked on today was a meld of her Nubby Brim Cloche:

and her Crochet Newsboy Hat:

I began my effort at 3:02 this afternoon with the hope that I could finish by 5:00 pm, and had I not gotten on the phone and chatted and then taken time to harvest crops at Farmville, I probably would have made that time, but even working with interruptions and distractions, I had the hat made and ready to be photographed before 6:00 pm:

Needing a model, I rifled through my son’s stuffed animals and found this tiger who was ready, willing, and able to pose wearing the hat:

As always, Ms. Tepper’s directions are excellent and her sense of style flawless. I will definitely be making this hat again, and I will be sure to let readers know when the pattern is available for purchase.