Last Friday I visited the One of a Kind Show in Toronto and discovered the Pook Toque ™. The Pook Toque ™ is a tuque with something extra – two sock flaps are on each side. The addition of the sock flaps is the innovation that allows the knitted cap to transform into many different styles and shapes.
The moose (typically Canadian) involves stuffing gloves into each of the socks to create antlers. Then there is the Donald Trump comb – over effect - one of the flaps is folded over to one side. Or perhaps you prefer both flaps folded over in a kind of Donald Trump squared. All kinds of effects can created by rolling, bending, tying or curling the sock flaps. You can even turn the flaps inside out and tuck them in so they are not visible at all.
Each Pook Toque™ comes with an illustration sheet showing what effects you can achieve. Here are a few:
Turkish
Rastafarian
The Wave
Robin Hood
Elephant
George Washington
Turtle Neck
Well you need to see it to believe and understand it. You can find this illustration sheet on the Pook site
Where did the funky name come from you ask? Believe it or not one of the co founders of the company is Tony Pook. The other partner is Kevin McCotter.
Catch the CTV Vancouver interview on You Tube
You will not want to miss the demonstration of how to transform the basic hat into multiple styles.
The spelling used by the Pook folks is “Toque” rather than Tuque but essentially they are used synonymously with the two different spellings. The spelling “Toque” actually sometimes refers to a chef’s hat.
The term tuque originated in Canada. A piece of headwear designed to keep the cold out.
According to the Wikipedia entry on tuques:
A tuque is a knitted cap, originally of wool though now often of synthetic fibers, that is designed to provide warmth in winter. Most tuques are tapered, they sometimes have ear-flaps…Tuques may have a folded brim, or none, and may be worn tightly fitting the head or loose on top although the latter is considered more standard.
