First-Timer's Knitting Fail Becomes an Accidental Hit
(Peekaboos Ponytail Hats/Facebook)
If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to be willing to get your hands dirty. Or, at least, find inspiration in a knitting experiment gone wrong.
When Danica Lause tried knitting her first winter hat, the results appeared decidedly mixed. After all, the finished product had a big hole in the back that she had forgotten to fill.
After picking up the discarded hat from the ground, Lause decided to try it on anyway to amuse her family and found the accidental hole made a convenient gap for her long ponytail.
“Looking back, I can’t believe I wore that in public, because it was pretty shabby and ridiculous,” Lause said in an interview with BizTimes Milwaukee.
Shabby or not, her friends and classmates at the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse began asking about the hat and where they could get one of their own. Lause got busy hand knitting several more replicas of that “failed” first experiment.
Twelve years later, her handcrafted hobby has become a full time business. Lause is the owner of D. Moss, a company that focuses entirely on bringing her unique Peekaboos winter hats and scarves to the world.
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(Peekaboos Ponytail Hats/Facebook)
These days, the ponytail hats are much more refined. The holes are hidden from the outside, woven into the hat’s structure, with two different size options. The hats retail for just under $40 and come in a variety of colors and have a fleece lining for extra warmth.
“The product has come a long way since that first accident,” Lause said in a recent interview with Good Day Sacramento.
Like other DIY success stories, Lause eventually realized she couldn’t manage her rapidly growing business entirely on her own. The former chemist told BizNews that transitioning from a fully hands-on approach to one that requires her to take a small step back was an adjustment.
“Overall, it’s really taught me to change my mindset because I can’t do it all anymore,” she said. “And it was very hard for me to let go and trust other people. It’s a healthy transition to finally learn that employees can be just as good as you if not better.”
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