Last November I was in a bit of Viking helmet crochet groove. I had just finished two crochet Viking helmets for two small children, and I got it in my head that I should make one for an adult. So I started on what I now think of as “the November 2019 Viking helmet.”

Having just finished work on the solving squares for a crochet sudoku puzzle afghan, I was looking around for something to crochet, and I came across the crochet horns I had made for the as-yet-to-be-finished Viking headwear:

At the time I had in mind a specific color of yarn for the main part of the hat, but despite having looked for the color I thought I had for almost four months now, I hadn’t found it.

So I decided that I would look through what was within easy reach and used whatever caught my fancy, and as it happened, there was a purple very near at hand.

Using Myntkat’s brilliant Viking helmet pattern, I picked up where I left off.

Sort of.

I actually started by making two of the four textured strips I would need, but which are worked in a contrast color. Using a warm gray that I had my stash I got to work. In seemingly no time, I had two of them done:

But, before I went any further, I wanted a clear sense of the interplay of the gray I had chosen to pair with the purple I had to use.

I started by making the hat in the XL Adult size, but when I was 26 rounds in, the hat started to seem very, very large, so I asked the person in the room with the largest head to try it on, and it was, as I had thought, very, very large.

After giving it some thought, I frogged my way back to the sixteenth round which is where the L and the XL patterns diverge, and I resumed work on the base of the hat.

This is how far I got before it was time to take a photo:

and this is how all of the pieces looked when assembled in one place:

With a bit more work, I expect that what was going to be a 2019 Viking helmet will be transformed into a 2020 Viking helmet, ready for whatever adventures lie ahead.