Aka Tombo Millinery: Buddha's button

I have a cold. It's rubbish. Traditional Japanese calendars split the year in to 72 sekki (moments of time) meaning they celebrate the changing of the season every 5 days. They watch changes in the colour of leaves, the insects that are about and the flowers that are blooming. This gives the non Japanese observer of Japanese customs the idea that the seasons in Japan are poetically turning like a smooth wheel ever changing with the gentle motion of time. This is crap. Buddha sits over Japan with a big button that 5 times a year he pushes with glee. There is no such thing as a gentle change in the seasons; from November to March it is bone chilling cold with snow as tall as me (I know I'm not very tall but in snow terms that's quite a lot) then mid golden week Buddha hits his button and it is glaring sunshine and hot for a couple of weeks before he hits his button again and the heavens open for 6 weeks of rain. This abruptly stops one day and the next is 34 degrees Celsius and humid as hell until yesterday when once more he hit his button and turned the heating off, thus Autumn. I am glad the heat has stopped, hell yes, the problem is that I am a little Scottish girl used to the year round constant of somewhat dull and chilly thus these extreme changes in temperature mean that I mark the changes in season by getting a cold. Last week I was sitting in my pants and a floaty vest top complaining of heat stroke and today I am wearing woolly socks, thick cord trousers, a long sleeved top with cardigan and a big scarf trying to hug my throat better. As for a hat to mark the occasions I cant decide...

There is the big, warm and fluffy option favoured by celebs around the world though really they are all trying to be tank girl and failing.

They know its true.

There is the queens classy version of the same look however I am a friend of peta and have to rule this out unless I can find a faux fur equivalent (another blog on this topic later).

I am quite taken by this hat, scarf and gloves in one idea and it seems to come with a cup of tea attached which is always nice. Added bonus is that the lovely Brian Sawyer from whom I stole this picture also posted detailed knitting instructions so you can make your own.

If it is the biting wind you are trying to avoid then one of these hats with beards that seem to be all over esty may be just the ticket but for me it has to be one of the amazing fairy sprite hats that is the winner.