Cute Chronicles – Phoenix Wright’s ‘Papa’ Hat Part 1

Su-per cutesy happy fun game and craft time!

It’s my dream to knit Phoenix Wright’s ‘Papa’ hat. Phoenix swaps his trademark sharp spikes and suit for a more… dressed-down look in Apollo Justice. The shocking hat covers his hair so it needs to be just as recognisable. As you probably know by now, I have a penchant for yarn and my current favourite hat is all kinds of crazy colours, but a Phoenix Wright ‘Papa’ hat would be my crowning glory. I want it, and I will make it.

The first step is to buy the yarn, which is done. It’s standard double-knit yarn which I’m going to double-strand, that means holding two strands of yarn together to make one thick one. I found a good colour match for £2 a ball.

The next step is to try and plan out what the hat’s going to be like. Well, yes, it’s going to be bright blue with ‘PaPa’ written on it in bright pink letters, but since I plan to actually knit in the ‘PaPa, some planning will be involved. There are a variety of Phoenix hats on the internet, the ‘official’ one being a machined beanie, some cosplayers painting the word onto a fleece hat, some embroidering it on a knitted hat. It would look a lot nicer knitted into the actual hat – there’s one hat like it that I’ve seen so far, but there are a couple of design features I will change.

I’ve been sketching it out, trying to work out one or two things. The bottom is going to be ribbed to give it a nice, fitted border like in the picture, but the rest of the hat will probably be knitted in stockinette stitch to keep it plain and let the word really pop. In the picture, Phoenix’s hat has lines going up it all the way which suggests it’s ribbed all the way up, but in practice it would probably be more trouble than it’s worth.

I’m going to be modifying a basic hat pattern which I’ve used in the past which is knitted flat and sewn up a central seam. Or it could be knitted in the round, which might make it easier to keep a track of how the colour is going… but then knitting it flat could keep things, well, flat. Hmm. Looks like there are still quite a few things to think about. Ah, the devotion of the crafty gamer!

The next step is going to be drawing up the ‘PaPa’, calculating how many stitches it needs to cover and charting it accordingly. Then comes casting on, following the pattern I’ve written and hoping for the best! Finally, a bottle of grape juice, the hat on my head and sandals on my feet. Probably in the height of summer. Yeah!