Here she is, in profile: the Happy Cat Hat, festooned with several dozen 1999* vintage rabies tags, which clink musically (though not alarmingly so, as they are carefully spaced) when the wearer is in motion. I've outlined the cat's ear, which is difficult to see in this photo.
I realized early on that if I followed Sonya Laska's "Sparkle Hat" instructions in Stitch 'N Bitch, I would probably end up with rabillettes marching diagonally across the areas where the ears needed to be, so I tried to chart the positions of the rabillettes first. This wasn't very successful because I couldn't figure out how to chart a hemispherical object very effectively (I started thinking about Mercator projections, which seemed a step in the too-complicated direction). Finally, I ended up knitting this hat from the top down, following Barbara Walker's directions in Knitting from the Top, and knitted some of the rabillettes on the front and back into place. I worked ear flaps and I-cord ties, adding a few rabillettes on the ties, and then added the ears to the hat, following Kitty Schmidt's "Kitty Hat" instructions in Stitch 'N Bitch. Then I sewed on more rabillettes until I was pleased with their layout.
*Should you wish to obtain some rabillettes for your own use, you could try your local vet's office; unless they employ a viciously organized office manager, they probably have boxes of old ones sitting around, perhaps behind those cartons of puppy and kitten care handouts that they ordered by the thousands to save $$. Anyway, a rabies vaccination is officially good for 3 years at most, so if your vet suspects that you are trying to obtain a rabies tag without paying for a rabies shot for your pet, you can lay those suspicions to rest by asking if they have any pre-2002 tags they'd like to get rid of.
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