Ode to a Monster

 Everyone needs a favorite monster, right?  Well, as far as I can tell, Older Son's favorite monster is none other than Cookie Monster!  Despite the fact that we live in a camouflage and ball cap kind of area, my Older Son decided about 3 years ago that he just wasn't a ball cap kind of guy and he has been wearing "beanie" style hats ever since...  There have been a few of them.  There was the Archery Beanie.  Then there was the black beanie with the white skull...  Then there were 2 white beanies with black skulls...  The second white beanie wasn't all that old when suddenly I realized that I hadn't seen it for a while and Older Son started to ask for a Cookie-esque hat.  It was only once I had made the new hat that I was told what had happened to the last hat.  He had given it away - to a GIRL!!!  I was seriously not impressed.
I was telling the other knitters about this at my last monthly knit night.  One of the older and clearly wiser knitters pointed something out to me:  that I had been paid quite a compliment!  A hand knit hat wouldn't likely be the first choice for a keepsake for most teenage boys.  She also very rightly pointed out that the influx of hat requests from his friends is also a compliment.  Sometime it is very useful to have a different perspective on things.  Thanks, Joan!

My "go to" hat pattern has become this one.  I have never made it as written and have never used the original skull, but I have used the basic hat part MANY times.