Icelandic Fish Hat

One of our last stops before leaving Iceland was the Blue Lagoon, which was not only a fantastic experience to complete our trip, but it was also a great location for a last minute photo shoot.

I had some trouble figuring out what to pack for knitting on the plane leaving Boston. It wanted something and relatively mindless, but I was worried about losing a half done pair of socks to the TSA, especially as I was knitting them on 2mm metal needles magic loop. Whether they were considered more deadly through someone's eye or a a garrote, I wasn't sure, so I left them in my checked luggage.

So the afternoon of our flight out I was fussing at home indecisive about what to bring that I wouldn't be too upset to lose, when I settled on using a bunch of easy care leftovers to make something I had wanted to knit for years: a fish hat!

Pattern: Fish Hat [Dead or Alive?]
Pattern Source: Knitty Winter 2008
Needles: US 8 / 5.0 mm
Yarn: leftovers of Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Solids, Berroco Vintage and Encore Worsted Solids
Yarn Leftover From: Wedding Afghan #1, a Droplet Hat, a Jayne Hat and coordinating Mitts, and a few other small projects which apparently I still need to blog
Mods: just replaced the eyes with embroidered yarn due to lack of other resources

This was our friendly tour guide, who was fantastic, holding the hat like a trophy fish. The bus driver was really funny as well and pointed out that the shape when held this way was very like a dried fish, something I saw more of there than I have anywhere else.

I knit this hat basically wherever we went when we were on a transportation. It was a fun knit wit some really clever details! As I got close to finishing this hat, I thought a lot about what to do with it. It is a hat with a big personality, and it needed someone to match. I had cast it on at the airport leaving to Iceland, and I was weaving the final ends on the way to the airport back to Boston. Somehow it just seemed like the right thing to let it go to someone else who might love it from this trip.

So I stuck up my courage and asked one of the brightest and full of life people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. She was also part of the tour group we were with, and she and her travelling companion were both incredibly funny and passionate. Afterwards Salvbard asked me how I knew that she would take it. If anyone might not only being willing to accept this hat but possibly even really wear it, I thought it might be her. Just intuition I guess.

It was totally not planned, but I love that it goes surprisingly well with her coat!

My plan was just sort of vaguely to hope that it would find a home with someone who might appreciate such a fun and silly hat with a good story. So I would have been thrilled enough at the enthusiastic response that it received, but it turns out there was more. I was told that her mom has a great love of crazy hats, and it sounded like it would go to her.

Sure enough a while after I got back from my trip I received email with a picture of the fish hat in use:

Love it! There were also thoughtfully included several photos of her mom in other crazy hats from the years so that I would know that her love of crazy hats was well established. What a fun woman! Seriously this is my goal, people: to fully enjoy the things that make me happy, no matter what it looks like to anyone else. I can absolutely see where her daughter gets her joie de vivre from. They are both beautiful, and I am so glad that I was fortunate enough to have our paths cross.