Dwarven Battle Bonnet- variations

When I brought out the Dwarven Battle Bonnet pattern a couple of years ago I had no idea it was going to appeal to as many people as it has. Clearly its not just me that firmly believes that everyone needs a silly hat in their lives.

One of the really great things about having the pattern out there being made by all sorts of people is seeing the variations on the basic pattern that people come up with, and it is a pattern that lends itself well to being modified slightly to create different character looks.

For example, here's one I made for a client last week, its got a spangenhelm/spectacle helm variation made simply by adding extra strips to frame the eye area, and 'rivets' added to the helmet by knitting a basic bobble at intervals, and hey presto, a completely different look for not much more effort.
If you have a look over on Ravelry at the projects page for this pattern, you'll see variations with horns on the helmet, different beard treatments, all sorts of different yarn choices, and lots and lots of really fantastic photos of people in their battle bonnets. I love creating hat patterns :)

If you fancy trying it out yourself, the pattern can be bought via Ravelry for just $3.00

General Carleton of Whitby Hat

Every now and then I get a chance to make a historic hat that is glorious in its slight daftness. The cap from the ''General Carleton of Whitby' (sunk 1785) is just such a hat, its nigh on as close as you can get to a bobble hat in re-enactment

The original is very faded, so the use of the madder stripe is my interpretation- it may have been another colour, but I'm generally pleased with the overall effect. Three shades of undyed wool and some madder dyed, very very lightly fulled, just enough to allow the thrums to settle into the form seen in the original, without any fulling at all they look too fluffy and odd. Based on examination of photos, sadly I didnt get a chance to see the original whilst it was in Whitby last year.

I did have a quick look at the pattern offered in 'the Yorkshire Mary Rose' by Eleanor Clapp when I was first planning this hat a few months back, but a few details in her version seemed at odds with what I felt I was observing in the photographs, so I worked this one based on stitch numbers and structures I could count on the various published images of the hat. I'm not for one moment saying her pattern is necessarily off, just that without the benefit of seeing the original hat in the flesh I chose to work with what I could explain with the information available to me. On the whole I'm very happy with this as a first work up of the hat and hope very much to have a chance to develop my interpretation as I come across more details of this hugely entertaining hat.

Original hat here: http://freespace.virgin.net/suesteph.ba ... %20hat.jpg
My version here: