Hat Stalking and Other Musings

As wiped as I was yesterday from lack of sleep, you'd think that I'd pass out the minute my head hit the pillow, but such was not the case. I tossed and turned, until the cat snuggled down next to me finally popped her head up as if to say, "Wouldja quit flopping around? I'm sleepin' here!"

Lying there in the dark, I passed the time imagining more hats I'd like to try knitting. Some may be original, but I'm sure plenty are just adaptations of hats I've seen around. I've read other people's tales of following someone down the street in an effort to get a better look at the cables on their sweater, or even taking surreptitious photos of a sweater in a major chain store. (And sometime next week I've got to post about the V-Secret sweater versions that keep popping up in knitting catalogs and magazines.) I've yet to resort to stalking people in malls for their hats, but there are plenty of errr...."inspirations" available.

If you watched the last episode of Bones:



Emily Deschanel's character was wearing a great looking knitted cap. I'm not particularly fond of the color, but I did try long and hard to get a decent shot of the cables!

And when I saw this magazine ad for Coach:



I figured the point of the ad was to draw your attention to the bags, jewelry and belt. I thought the hat was just the stylist's touch, but when I went to the Coach site to see if I could get a better image, I found this:



Oddly enough, I liked it better in the print ad when I couldn't see the crown. I'd pictured it with just the pink, tan, and red stripes, and then continuing with white. So maybe that'll be my version. It's described as a cashmere/wool blend and costs $128. Freaking one hundred and twenty eight fracking dollars. For a knitted cap. Are ya with me here? I was planning to visit a yarn shop on the mainland this weekend after I take an exam. I think I'll take a copy of this picture with me and see what I can rustle up for a somewhat more reasonable price!

Then this afternoon I passed by a local business that had a display of hats next to the door. I suppose I should have tried to get one of those surreptitious photos, but the hats themselves really weren't worthy of the effort. For $15 you can get a very poor quality, machine made hat in your choice of several very unnattractive colors of scratchy, cheesy yarn. I'm not sure they're even worth $5.

So what's the point of all this? I don't really know. It seems to me that if there are just a few people out there willing to spend a great deal of money for a small, simple knitted item - well, that's great - you can take their money an move along. But if you can offer a decent quality product with a reasonable pricetag, such that large amounts of people can actually afford it - doesn't that make more sense?