Dusty and the Fire Hat

This year, despite being ridiculously busy around the holidays, I decided that nothing was too good for my little boy. I was going to make him the ultimate hand felted hat. Some facts about Dusty, His favourite colour is red. This is because, Akkar, the coolest Bionicle is red. He adores all things powerful that shoot (only bad guys, mom) wear capes, breathe fire and save the world. A couple of weeks before I made him this hat he asked me why I never make him hats (not true) and he told me that he really wants a red hat. How could I go wrong? So, a bit about wet felting. When you see a hand felted hat in a store and you are shocked by the price, try to keep in mind that it is probably way too cheap. The process begins by laying out whisper thin layers of raw wool on top of each other until the shape of a very large hood is achieved. The whole thing is wetted down with soap and water and then rubbed, kneaded and thrown forever until the fibres have locked into felt. Then it is shaped on a hat block and trimmed. Don’t get me wrong, I love the whole process, but it’s a good days work if not more and I am usually quite sore from it. So, Dusty opened the hat , tried it on, smiled politely, gave me a kiss and then threw it on the floor with very little thought and proceeded on to the real present. I was O.K. with this, but then it was time to head over to our friends’ house for dinner. I put the hat on Dusty and he pulled it off and said he wanted to wear his froggy hat. I’m not proud of this, but I sunk into a deep depression and probably mentioned something to Dusty about not wanting to go on. He asked me why I was sad and I told him it was because he didn’t like the hat. So, he jauntily bounced over to the hat and put it on and we all headed off into the car. I was kind of watching myself throughout this whole episode aware of my really bad parenting skills at the time, but I added another quarter to his future therapy fund and let it go. The next day when it was time to go out again I pulled down the fire hat, but it seemed that Dusty had used up all his pity and quite adamantly said, “I can choose which hat I wear! ” I knew he was right. I’ve tried a few more times, but nothing doing. Oh, well what are you gonna do? Anybody want to buy a fire hat? Only been worn for one hour.