new hat for the boy

My son has asked for a new winter hat. His reasoning is that since he got a new jacket this year, shouldn't his hat match? (This from a kid who has shown no other interest in fashion or clothes...)
Who am I to say no... We discussed styles, and it was decided that he really liked the chullo style of last years hat - the ear flaps, the ties, the large size of it. Cool. I just happened to have the Knit Picks catalogue, and they have a great chullo pattern using Palette wool.

One problem - while the greys, black and white are perfect, he's not fond of turquoise - that's really his cousin's "Thing" - Cousin S is a huge fan of turquoise, and wears it all the time. So the turquoise had to go.

 Easy fix - just add three more balls of Palette in shades of green - his choice of replacement.

Then there was the small problem of the pattern on the ear flap - the alpaca was not his first choice - could I replace it with a skull?

(Hey, he's a 12 year old boy, skulls are way cooler than alpacas...) Sure! Doodle up something,

knit it up

 get the approval from the boy, and start the second ear flap. I'm hoping to have both flaps done before the weekend, so I can get to the hat itself - these flaps are fiddly and annoying with tons of ends hanging - because I had to use all three shades of green on something this small. Next time, maybe one shade of green would suffice...

Oh, and just because it made sense (as far as shipping costs), I threw in a couple of balls of Chroma worsted weight to make another striped scarf a la Noro. Colourway Mesa, and I think it's going to look great.