In all honesty, I tend to add to my fiber stash because I have a low threshold when it comes to resisting beauty, and yarn senses this weakness in me and preys upon it. As a result, I have drawers full of lovely moth bait currently serving no purpose except as fodder for dreams and receiving no attention besides the occasional petting. But because they exist in my house, I can, upon a whim, decide to make a Star Wars hat for my little cousin Sam’s seventh birthday. Look here! Black alpaca from a Spiders swap two summers ago. And here? A ball of pewter grey RYC silk/wool I bought to swatch for a corset top (I ended up using Cathay instead.). How about some white for the six little R2D2s? Yep; the hat I’ve planned out of Cascade 220 will never miss a few yards. I thought I was stymied when I got to R2D2’s blue bits, but sure enough, in the very back of the worsted/DK wool drawer, was a lone ball of Mission Falls in the perfect shade. Now, light saber colors: here’s a bright heathered red skein of Cascade 220 from the swag bag I got on the yarn cruise around Manhattan. And lo! A whole sack of ancient Thorobred scheepjeswol Brushed Wool in powder blue, inherited from Mr. Garter’s mamma. Someday it will be a nifty ’40s-inspired cardigan, but right now a few yards will give the blue light sabers that potent fuzzy glow. And in a galaxy not so very far, far away, a hat is born:

[Note to self: Dude, next time take a picture of the front of the hat that doesn’t show the join, eh genius?] And it just happens that my little cousin’s name lends itself to Star Wars font, so of course I had to take advantage of that:

It’ll blow his mind, if it fits his wee blond head. Cross your fingers for me that his noggin isn’t bigger than 19″ in circumference, okay? I have to say, this was fun. There may be another of these in my future, because Mr. Garter has been drooling over it. Time for more stash diving!

Note: The charts are free here; there’s really no other pattern for the hat. I worked it on US#3 needles, figured six repetitions of the chart would make a boy-sized hat, and threw in some double decreases at the top between motifs. I worked the letters under the brim upside-down, used a row of purl sts as a turning round, and sewed down the cast-on edge to the inside of the hat at the very end.