The history of the ski hats

Once upon a time, for reasons that are no longer clear, a woman decided to make her brother a silly fleece hat to go skiing in. A hat with jester-style points was suggested and agreed upon. Although the woman suspects that her brother was expecting a slightly smaller hat...
...and it seemed to start a tradition. The next year, when he went on another ski trip, he needed another silly hat to keep the kids amused (the brother is also a teacher, these are all school ski trips with hordes of kids). The sister remembered back to when he was young and wore a horned hat (oxford united football club - blue peaked cap with yellow horns on the top - can't find a picture) everywhere for years and years...

Best pic I have of it. The hons are a bit floppy, and tend to get stuck in the top of ski lifts when you have to put the bar up to get out, as they are about 18 inches high. They do stand up straight when not covered in snow, but it's not the most practical hat (the jester one works surprisingly well at all but top speed, apparently).

That year Carey got a hat too... spiky sonic-the-hedgehog effect. The next year we basically modelled his spiky hairstyle in fleece - scaled up a bit, obviously. The lack of earflaps on this one makes it less stable. Not enough hat to grip the head.
Last year we went for a stegosaurus style... This one performs very well aerodynamically but isn't the most impressive to see from a distance. The wattles are a good shape, though, and continue all down the tail, which hangs down the back when in use.

Last year he also got a more sensible knitted chullo hat to keep ears warm at high speeds on the black runs. He's mental. I wouldn't dare. (Painful foot is making me even less keen to try skiing).

This year's effort is a rasta dreads hat: a black fleece base with hundreds of hand-dyed (and some handspun!) knitted i-cord dreads, felted for ease of cutting / sewing and for added durability. This was definitely my least favourite to make, even when I figured out a way to sew the dreads on with my sewing machine instead of by hand. He seems to like the effect though, and spent much of yesterday evening whipping the dreads round into new hairstyles. I'm now taking suggestions for the next hat design: he's going on three ski trips this year! Please leave me a comment with any suggestions...

And proof that he really does wear them on the slopes.....

...apparently you can spot him (and hear him coming!) half a mountain away in this one. Not a bad plan for the kids to be able to find their teacher, really!