Our friend Fabrice is a bit crazy, and we’ve been calling him “Poulpy” (poulpe= octopus in french) ever since he wore a dead octopus on his head during a costumed party.

So about 2 years ago when he invited us for his birthday, I knew I had to make him something special, and thought of an octopus hat. And this is what I came up with, a super bulky hat in his favourite colors with a detachable octopus so that the hat would be both functional and wearable (when worn sans octopus) or crazy-over-the-top when worn with the octopus buttoned on.
I started working right away on another sample with a more readily available yarn , Malabrigo Merino worsted, and got the hat all done pretty quick. But then I’m not too sure what happened and the hat sat in a pile of WIPs for .. nearly 2 years !!

Until I picked it up again a couple weeks ago, back-engineered the instructions and worked on the octopus appliquà©. And voilà , a new pattern !! :-D (you may see several of those older designs published this winter, would love to empty a bit of that to-do list)

I kept the basic principle of the original hat: you can wear it without the octopus for a more casual wear, and I have to say I really like the shape of that hat (and the Malabrigo, yum, so soft and comfy !!).
Or you can button on one of the 2 octopus and run around town with those crazy dangly tentacles !! :-)

The pattern is already available both on Etsy and Ravelry, along with all the details.
Or you can pick up a copy right now for $5 :
And look at the first Poulpy hat out there, made by Srividya who again helped with the testing ! :-)