You can leave your hat on...

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved hats. The girl's mother said this was because the girl was bald until she was three years old. How embarrassing.

So the girl grew up and bought lots and lots of hats. She had fishing hats and baseball caps and even a hat with kitty-cat ears! She wore her hats almost all the time, especially in college. Most of her college coworkers never saw her head except for maybe when she woke up from a nap in her office and hadn't had time to put her hat back on yet.

Then, the day before Thanksgiving this year, this girl fell in love with a wintery-type hat that was so cool and colorful that she knew she had to have it. But this hat was speeecial.

It was made by a co-op of women in Ecuador called Over the Rainbow. To create an economically sustainable community, the women hand-knit sweaters, hats, and scarves from fair trade, minimally processed wool and cotton. Then, for a few months each year, the two Americans who started the co-op travel the U.S. selling the women's handiwork.

The girl loved her new hat and lived happily ever after. The end.

P.S. DID YOU KNOW THE STORY WAS ABOUT ME? Oh, you did? Oh. Bummer.
P.P.S. Yes, I really was bald until I was three.

EDIT: P.P.P.S. Nobody commented that I was doing a good Blair Witch impersonation. :-P