like my new hat?

Want to see my new hat? I bought it at the new Holt’s store in Vancouver last week, with my daughter Megan’s approval (she says it “opens up” my face). I wasn’t seriously looking for a hat but just having fun on my own — so many choices of great hats, and Holt’s has quite a few of their own line, various shapes, felted wool, at very reasonable ($45-60) prices. This one was not reasonable by my standards altho’ it came off pretty well compared to the $600 ones sitting next to it! But it’s such a perfectly simple yet distinctive shape and a wonderfully comfortable weight. It’s made in Italy by Grevi of rabbit felt (and this doesn’t mean rabbits had to be killed for it anymore than they do for angora yarn). I did make an attempt to resist buying it — at least, I asked the saleswoman to put it aside for me, but I did leave the store for several hours without it. Then I bumped into Megan on the street and, well, you know . . .

I’m not going to say how much it was — obviously somewhere between $60 and $600, and much closer to the former — but Megan and I both thought it was pretty hilarious that the saleswoman thought it was worth giving me her card. I mean, really, who carries around a card for their favourite hatseller (perhaps if she were actually a milliner. . .)

Anyway, there’s my beautiful hat, and now here are my attempts to get a picture of myself wearing it. Paul always takes a while to make sure he’s got the camera properly set, by which time my face has always frozen in some ridiculous expression, so I thought I’d try to experiment with just holding the camera at arm’s length from myself. For me, at least, this is much harder than it looks, and I got many shots like this

and then quite a few more like this
and then I decided to give up on that and get Paul to take a few, but sure enough, there’s that ridiculous expression again
so I thought if I were going to get caught looking ridiculous, I might as well have some fun (and actually get the hat in the picture — I mean, that was the point, sweetie!)
But finally I managed this shot on my own, and I hope you agree this really is a perfect hat for me.

All these were taken shortly after we returned from paddling (kayaking) into town for our morning coffee and a Brioche Royale at Nanaimo’s new French bakery/cafe. It’s definitely getting cooler, but it was perfect weather for a paddle — some light drizzle but very calm. I took advantage of having Paul with me to pick up (more than) a few groceries which we threw in the kayak hatch. Back home by 9:30 in time to cast on for a cabled vest I’m making in Rowan’s Scottish Tweed. More on that project later.