© Joan Currie

Toque or tuque def: a woman’s small hat without a brim made in any of various soft-fitting shapes.

I watched Love Story again last night after many years.  I was still enchanted by the scene in which Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal frolick in the snow in Harvard Yard –  making angels, slipping and falling, and kissing (she even licked the snow off his check).  I developed a penchant for wool toques after that movie – forever associating them with the beautiful, but tragic, Jennifer Cavalleri character. Shortly thereafter, I learned how to knit and crochet the hats using rich variegated yarns in blue, purple, and red.

The French mohair toques are my favorite and I have collected several over the years from my trips to Vancouver. They are so beautifully crafted that I consider them wearable art.