Killer Whale Hat

The other day I watched Free Willy on Netflix with my roommate. I used to love that movie and it was because of that movie that Killer Whales were my absolute favorite animal as a child. I had three stuffed whales, my favorite being Willy of course (the other two were Luna and Spot). I had sheets with Orcas on them and even had a cool 3D puzzle thingy of one. Keeping in line with my goals for coming up with a number of animal-themed hats that I would like to try and sell, inspiration struck while I was watching the movie. What better for my next hat to be than a Killer Whale! This is what I came up with!








This is my absolute favorite hat thus far. I love the way that it turned out aesthetically and fit-wise. If I can toot my own horn, it's just great! :) I gave him button eyes so they would stand out a bit more than black yarn on black yarn would. Plus the earflaps are fins! So geeked! :D

I also came up with the idea to add a couple cool facts about the animals my hats are inspired from. I am a Zoology major after all so I feel it's kind of my duty to foist a little knowledge on your unsuspectingly :P. I'm trying to figure out exactly how to present the facts and I think, for now at least, I will go with a super cliche and cheesy lead-in. So...did you know?? The Orca or Killer Whale (also known as the blackfish) is the largest member of the dolphin family. Killer whales are considered apex predators which means that they are at the absolute top of their food chain and have no natural predators. They also have very complex social systems that are only rivaled by elephants and higher primates like us! I could go on forever, but you should just check out wikipedia because they are very awesome animals.

You may have noticed that I now have a mannequin to display hats! Someone over at craftster was so kind as to tell me that they have them for cheap over at ebay so I picked up 2 for one! I want to paint them so that they look a bit better and hopefully won't make that horrible styrofoam noise when they touch things (I don't know why but that sound is absolutely awful to me; worse than nails on chalkboard!). Once I do that, I may try putting (some of) the hats I've made up on ebay to see if they sell! I figure that's a better option for me right now since I don't have the time to devote to figuring out my Zibbet shop while school's going on.

Anyways, I just had to say again how pleased I am with this hat. I'm not bold enough to ever wear it but it still makes me happy!

Now I just have to figure out what animal I should do for my next hat! Suggestions very much welcome!

-Erin