Cozy Canuck Chullo

When the weather turned cold, back in the fall, I dug out all of our winter clothes. The kids rooted through the bin of stuff and reacquainted themselves with their hats and mittens from last year. I started plopping one of a few different hats on Claire's head every morning before I dragged her off to school.

Don't get me wrong, the kid loves school. It's the physical act of going to school that she hates. If it is at all cold, she will whine and moan and shuffle like that old man who used to live next door to my parents, till we get to the kindergarten pen. When we get to the pen, in a perfect world, I would give her a kiss and a hug and watch her trot off to her class lineup to wait for the bell to ring. In reality, I usually arrive at the pen sort of haggard with her dragging behind me like a limp noodle. More than once she has broken down into tears at the gate because she is cold and on at least two occasions she received special treatment and got escorted into the school early (she can work a system, I tell ya). Honestly, she has as much cold-weather gear on as the rest of the kids. She's just sensitive to cold. If her ears are cold...that's the worst. She'll stand stock still and whine about her ears and no amount of me saying "Standing still does not help you get to a warm place" will get her moving.

After going through the entire rotation of hats that we have, I decided something needed to be done. The knitted hats were thin enough for the wind to blow through and the fleece hats put so much static into her hair that she found it hard to function after they were removed. We were stuck.

One day, during the morning yank to school, I realized that what she needed was a fair isle hat with ear flaps. The double thickness of fabric would keep the wind from blowing through (especially if I used smaller than recommended needles) and the ear flaps would be better than watching her tug and tug and tug all those other hats down around her ears.

I came home and went through all my patterns looking for the perfect thing. I found one I sort of liked but it was knit flat instead of in the round, with DK weight yarn when I wanted worsted, with more than two colours in a row and a few more pet peeves I'll keep to myself. So, using that as a jumping off point, I designed my own hat. Since the basic idea comes from another source, I don't feel right charging for it as if the idea were entirely my own but it deviates so significantly from the other that I do feel like I can offer it up to the knitting community for free.

Here it is, the Cozy Canuck Chullo, being modeled by Madame Jillian (Claire modeled the Cherished Pullover so Jillian deserves a turn this time):



I've written the pattern for two sizes: small, which fits a small child (19" circumference) and large, which fits a big kid or a woman (20.25"). I made them out of Cascade 220 and I recommend that yarn for just about anything you can come up with to make out of it. The pattern tells you which colours I used in case you like those (and I made a boy version by substituting an orange for the pink...easy, peasy, lemon squeezy) but it would be easy to devise others (Claire, a prototype I haven't photographed, is white and chocolate brown and two shades of - I bet you can guess - PINK).

Anyway, if you want to make one, you can link to the pattern from my design web site (sadly neglected for almost a year) www.froggiemeanie.com or through Ravelry. I'd be happy to hear what you think of it!

(I'm posting this at 2 PM...the pattern should be up at both places by 4).