Knitwear at the Movies: Finding Neverland

My move from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic happened in 2004, so I was busy, shall we say, when Finding Neverland first came out.  The movie has been on my must-see list for several reasons: I have a huge interest in British literature AND children's literature (both lit for kids and lit by kids, actually); Peter Pan, of course, has been interpreted many ways and I was excited to see the play in its original form; I'm a sucker for based-on-a-true stories; and then, there's this...

image courtesy of WireImage via IMDB

Yowza.

Burgundy Boy Bonnets
One of these things is not like the other...

No hat, Peter?  What a shame. Let's look at the two hat styles more closely.

 

The more I look at these berets (tams? berets? tams.), the more I'm convinced that they are felted.  I know some of you are facepalming while yelling "Obviously!", but my knitwear whispering skills are in their infancy; I beg your indulgence and thank you for your patience.

And Michael (Luke Spill) has got this really cute garter stitch beanie thing with an asymmetrically-folded brim.  IMHO, I prefer this to the tam, actually: seems a lot more versatile and, oddly enough, less juvenile.

They're so adorable, but the patterns aren't exactly out there:

you can see the tam top in this one

Kinda Remindy tam patterns:

When working this project, the center of the tam top is a solid color, surrounded by very thin stripes alternating between that color and a lighter variation.
crochet!  Pinwheel Beret [Rav link] by Cynthia Preston; available via the Winter 2008 Interweave Crochet magazine
free knit! The Perfect Beret [Rav link] by Janelle Masters; also available in French
felted knit!  Felted Beret [Rav link] by Bev Galeskas; published in Felted Knits

Kinda Remindy beanie pattern:

I only found one pattern that looked remotely similar to the hat in the movie.  It's an adult-sized knit "moebius hat" called Quincy [Rav link], designed by the incomparable Jared Flood.  It's available as a $4.75 USD PDF download from Flood's website Brooklyn Tweed and in the published collection Made in Brooklyn from Classic Elite Yarns.

The movie made me cry and the knits made me smile.  It was an enjoyable evening.