I don’t much like hats, but I live in Canada and need one for several months out of the year. As a result, I’m always knitting hats, in search of The One. I finally found it!

The Sophie Bucket Hat pattern is writting for Lionbrand Go for Faux, a yarn I love to bits. It’s so soft and squishy, and it knits into the most amazing fabric. The stitches disappear so it could be a length of faux fur cloth. That makes knitting it a bit of a challenge as you can’t read your knitting at all. (When I make a mistake, I just rip it all out and start over again.)

Here’s Go for Faux on the Lionbrand site. Be aware that they also make a heavier version of this yarn called Go for Faux Thick & Quick. That’s way too thick to use for this pattern, but on online vendor sites, it’s easy to miss the weight distinction. (Go on. Ask me how I know.)

And here’s the pattern for the Sophie Bucket Hat on Ravelry. This is a free pattern if you visit her website and print the blog post. If you want to download a PDF, she has one for sale on her site and on Ravelry.

I used one and half balls of Go for Faux in Mink for this one. I found the Go for Faux at Len’s Mills as well as online stores:

The strange thing about the Go for Faux (because I’ve bought a lot of colours of it) is that the black colourway, called Black Panther, feels very different from the other colours. It’s not nearly as soft, which is a shame because black fur would be awesome. I have no idea why this would be.

I used 1.4 balls of another fake fur yarn called Buttersoft, from Spindle Yarns. (That’s a Ravelry link.) This yarn was available at Fabricland and is apparently their own label. The colourway is Wineberry.

I wanted a colour other than greys and browns, even though I’m not much for dirty pinks. I also didn’t find this yarn as squishy-soft as the Go for Faux. Here’s how the hats look flat.

There is a tiny colour change where I switched to the second ball on each hat. On the grey one, the end of the first ball was a bit whiter, so there’s a stripe there (ha – like a halo!) while the second ball of the dusty pink was a bit lighter than the first one. I did match dye lots in both cases, but I guess there’s variation over each skein.

Knitpicks also has their own faux fur yarn called Fable Fur. (That’s a KP link.) I have a few balls of it which I bought to knit garments for the girls, but sadly don’t have two balls of a single colour. I ordered more of the Hibou, which is a pretty grey teal, to make myself another Sophie Bucket Hat. There’s also some Go for Faux in Red Panda on its merry way to me. That’s a great pinky burgundy colour. How many hats do I need? Hmm. Canadian winters can be long…and this is the perfect hat. I think a few more can’t hurt!

Have you found your perfect hat pattern yet?