So 煤球 lost the hat I made him last year. I started to make him a new one in the exact same pattern, as his pickiness seemed to like it. Yesterday he informed me that he didn’t like the pattern I used for him last year, it was too tight around his head (I increased the width given in the patt) and not long enough (at nearly 45 cm?!). We were passing a shop that sells cheap stuff to tweens, he pointed to a long black and pink striped hat with ear flaps. I was really tempted to make him a Jayne Hat, as he would have no idea what he was wearing, which would be funny but also cruel. So I thought about ear flaps, and this image kept popping up in my head:

I won’t be making a balaclava, and it won’t really resemble the pic at all in the end, but the image is an anchor for me as I come up with a design for his pickiness’ hat.  Do you ever use anchors when coming up with design/knitting?