Read other entries in this series here as they are available.

Pattern name: None for the hat, although I did use the rose pattern from Nicky Epstein’s Rose Pillow, which ran in the Vogue Knitting Holiday 2005 issue (Ravelry link)

Designer: Me

Yarn: Various Lion Brand Yarns including Fun Fur (now discontinued) and Homespun (closest current colorway is Purple Haze), the gray yarn might be Jiffy?  This hat was knit pre-Ravelry so I am relying solely on memory here.

My Favorite Thing about This Hat: I made this hat up myself!  I was in the early days of my knitting obsession (around 2006 or so) and had just finished knitting a bunch of very simple hats for Christmas gifts, but that pattern didn’t fit me the way I wanted (as mentioned in previous posts, I have a lot of trouble getting hats to stay over my ears with the volume of hair I have). I had used some Homespun to knit myself a scarf, and only had enough remaining to make a small strip of stockinette.  So I used some gray bulky yarn (leftover from another gift knit) to make the main part of the hat, attached the brim and added a rose and gray “stitching” for visual interest.

I wore this hat for about five or six years – it even survived me almost losing it by leaving it on airplanes and/or restaurants several times. The purple brim curled nicely over my ears and it didn’t slide around on my hair. 

What I’d Change about This Hat: Since it was knit in acrylic, it wasn’t super warm (I always had another hat for below freezing weather). Also I just made this up on the fly so I didn’t write down how I did it!  

Would I Knit it Again? Probably not, but mostly because I can’t remember how I did it the first time.

This Week’s Charity:

Since its founding in 1980, the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless has been an advocate for people experiencing homelessness in Chicago, providing both direct outreach and support services as well as advocating for legislative and policy solutions.  The Coalition produces an annual estimate on homelessness in Chicago (PDF link) that attempts to identify all forms of homelessness someone may be experiencing – for example, identifying people who may be staying with others rather than sleeping on the street.

The Coalition’s policy campaigns include the Bring Chicago Home initiative, an effort to establish  a progressive real estate transfer tax (RETT) on high-end property sales over $1 million in the city of Chicago. Funds would be dedicated to addressing homelessness, including new housing stock. Thanks to their efforts, the Chicago City Council recently approved sending Bring Chicago Home to city voters as a referendum held during the March 2024 primary.

Additionally, their four-year Home Works campaign, which ended in 2019, resulted in the establishment of a new homeless education policy in Chicago Public Schools, and a school-based housing initiative, called Housing Support for CPS Families in Transition (FIT). Launched in the 2017-18 school year, as program as proposed by HomeWorks provides permanent supportive housing to 100 homeless families with about 400 parents and children from six Chicago Public elementary schools. City agencies assessed the most vulnerable families that, for the first time in a city-funded program, included families that were doubled-up in the homes of others. 

You can support the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless through this link.