Childhood reminder

When I was a very little girl, in the mid 1950s, women and, to an extent girls, still wore hats when they went out.  Thinking about it, the men did too, mainly tweed caps or trilbies.  I remember that my mum had a couple of knitted hats which she wore regularly when she went into town to shop, or when she went to church or to women's meetings.

My hat that I wore to Sunday School each week was a knitted pale lemon beret made from angora wool, so that it was soft and fluffy.  Mum had pinned a small brooch in the shape of a celtic harp made of coloured enamel, to the front of it.  Oh, how I loved that hat!  It was never a problem to get me to wear it.  I'm not absolutely certain who knitted it, but it could well have been Auntie Elsie, one of mum's older sisters (mum was one of 12), who didn't have children of her own so semi-adopted me.  I used to go on holiday with her and her husband for two weeks in Cornwall each summer (during tern time!), and I spent much of my school holidays staying with her.  She was an expert craftswoman who encouraged my knitting, and taught me to crochet.  She knitted and crocheted, but her speciality was embroidery, and I still have several tablecloths adorned with her work.

All of this came flooding back when I was given some brushed acrylic yarn.  I scrolled through Ravelry to choose something to make, and came across a pattern for a child's beret.  Crocheted, not knitted, but I just had to have a go at it.  And this is the result:

It isn't as fluffy as my beret was, but it is soft and I am sure will be very warm.  The front post crochet  'ribs' give a lovely structure to the hat.  Now I need to find a small brooch to pin to the front of it!