FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

Now that my holiday shopping list is growing, I have added a few notations to it about whom I will crochet items for once again. Each year, several family members, and friends come to me with requests to make them (or their loved ones!) mittens and caps. Surprisingly, the requests come from the older kids, teenagers, and a few that, though now young adults have survived several of our long, cold Midwestern winters wearing my fun to make mittens and hats. What makes them so popular you might wonder, as I did several years back when once again the requests rolled in? When I asked, a few of the replies I received were along these lines: 'We can pick any color we want as long as we can find that color of yarn', 'they fit', 'their warm', and 'you write whatever saying we want across the front'.

All these answers bring me to the conclusion that they are so well liked because they let the kids who wear them be individuals, and they are warm, always a plus where temperatures often drop not only below freezing, but below zero. My own son, who is nearly thirteen, has been wearing my mittens and hats since he was a baby. Last snowboard season I told him he should pick out a set of gloves and a hat made for wear on the hills. He did, and he continued to wear his purchased gloves all year long. About the third week in of snowboard season though, he came to me and asked me if I could crochet him a bright green beanie (skullcap) style hat and write his name across the front of it. I made it without a second thought, figuring he wanted it for wearing around the yard, sledding, etc. The first weekend it was done, he wore it snowboarding. His quick reply was that all the kids were wearing crocheted or knitted beanies. They were cool!

After a quick search on Ebay, I discovered that indeed, crocheted beanie hats were all the rage. To help me determine whether they will be again or not, I decided to do a current quick search online and at Ebay, and even though it is the peak of summer, crocheted beanies (also referred to as skullcaps) are once again hitting store shelves in readiness for the upcoming winter. So, as I ready my list of who will be receiving crocheted hats and mittens once again, there are some old names on my list, such as my son, and a new one, my grandson. I will have the enjoyment of making them something handcrafted and save a few dollars at the same time, and they will both be heading into winter in cold weather gear that is all the rage, and created so that they can be as individual as the items themselves. Create some of these fun winter designs for a loved one to wear, or hit the stores or Ebay for one-of-a-kind caps you can purchase.