Each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, fifth-graders at Indian River School have something special to look forward to.
Informally known as “hat day,” students get to choose from dozens of hats handmade by paraeducator Carol Ann Morrison, who for more than a decade has crocheted enough winter hats to cover the head of every fifth-grader and new student.
This year, Morrison upped her goal to 365 from her typical 150, and she presented the hats to fifth- and sixth-graders last week. (Morrison was at a different school last year and wanted to make sure last year’s fifth-graders got one too.)
“I like to make sure every kid who wants a hat can get a hat,” said Morrison, of Canaan.
But she doesn’t skimp on care or creativity to hit her quota; the hats range in style and color — all the better to suit the many different personalities in the student body.
“Each hat is one-of-a-kind,” Morrison said.
Throughout the years, she has also learned quite a bit about the tastes of middle schoolers, she said, as the micro-scale fashion trends ebb and flow on the whims of tweens. This year, hats with the color orange were especially popular.
“Sometimes the most tasteful hat sits there when the wacky hats are the first to go,” she said. “As far as I can tell, the funnier-looking it is, the better. All the hats are different, but they still want something distinctly different or unique.”
This year, Morrison made a hat with many shades of purple in it that she thought was particularly beautiful.
“I thought this was going to go, but nobody took it. It was too tasteful for 10-year-olds. apparently,” she said with a laugh.
The last few years, the hats have been displayed in the school library, where as before Morrison would haul them from classroom to classroom in a large bag.
“The kids are really excited about it,” said librarian Holly Howes, of Canaan.
As soon as the hats were set up, Howes alerted the teachers, and a line began to form.
“This is the one day of the year when they get their hats on Hat Day, where a lot of teachers will let them wear their hats in class,” Morrison said. “The kids love them, and they wear them out to recess. They wear them in class as long as they can get away with it. They’re always super-, super-excited.”
Morrison said she set a goal of 365 hats — one hat per day — as a way to reduce her yarn stash. She reached her goal in November. She said some hats take her as little as 20 minutes to make, depending on how large her crochet hook is and how thick the yarn is, and she uses a basic beanie pattern she memorized long ago.
This year’s collection was prominent in Fun Fur, a type of yarn that is particularly fluffy — and a big hit among middle schoolers. But the hat-a-day goal means she has a lot to go around even outside Indian River.
“There’s going to be extras this year,” Morrison said.
Some will be distributed to other schools in the area, and others will go to area nonprofit organizations.
But more than the gift of a warm head in the cold weather, Hat Day also offered students inspiration to take up crocheting. And Morrison is happy to teach them.
“There’s always somebody who wants to learn,” she said.
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
