Last winter, a friend turned me on to an authentic pattern from the Red Cross volunteers used to make "helmets", or wool balaclavas for our soldiers. Not seeing this available commercially anywhere, I learned to knit (from websites and youtube) and made this! so far the only other thing I've done with this new skill is knit some jute possibles bags, and a sling pouch. maybe do it again for some other winter gear in the future. This is 100% wool and ridiculously warm. My aunt borrowed the pattern and made several, for the kids, my parents etc. out of acrylic yarn (I'm wearing the red one in a recently posted fire video)