My Collection of Kippot (Yarmulkes)

A long time back, I think a couple of years ago, I took a group picture of my kippot/yarmulkes, which then numbered 12.  I now have 26.  I wanted to give each one its own moment to shine, so to speak: its own photograph, its own introduction.  In this post, I do just that.  With the exception of three which are not stacked with the others today, and two whose pictures would not load in the proper order, and which are therefore introduced at the end, the kippot/yarmulkes get bigger as the post goes on and I stack them one on top of the others.  Enjoy!

This is my gay pride kippah, because of the rainbow.  I searched all over the internet, looking for the cheapest one I could find, and this is it.  I got it from Etsy for 24 dollars.  Despite being my smallest kippah, it was my second most expensive.

This kippah I got in Israel, from Kippah Man on Ben Yehudah street in Jerusalem.  This is my favorite of my four crocheted kippot, which are known in Hebrew as kippot serugot.

This was my first kippah ever.  My father brought it home for me from a Rabbinical Assembly convention when I was eight years old.

And this was my second kippah ever.  This one also came to me via my father, from a Rabbinical Assembly convention.  This time, I was 10 years old.

This kippah was a freebie from my high school graduation.  I really do not like suede kippot, so the only ones I have I got free from various places/occasions, and I only have three of them.

This is another suede kippah.  Likewise, it was a freebie, this time from a roommate's wedding.

And this suede kippah comes from my Bat Mitzvah! I said I do not like suede kippot, and I do not, but at the time I was not collecting yet and had not refined my tastes.  We had both pink and purple kippot at my Bat Mitzvah; for a while the only kippah I wore was a purple Bat Mitzvah kippah.  I am not sure what happened to that one, but now I have this pink one instead.

This kippah came with my Bat Mitzvah tallit (prayer shawl).  Originally, the embroidery matched; after ten years of use the kippah has faded significantly.  For instance, that gray background used to be unmistakably purple.  Both kippah and tallit were designed by my favorite Israeli designer (for lots of things, not just kippot and tallitot), Yair Emanuel.

This kippah was also designed by Yair Emanuel.  I got it last Fall.  It is painted silk.  I had ordered it in blue; this magenta color is definitely not blue, but I have come to love this kippah for what it is anyway.

This is a kippah that I wanted for a long time before I got it.  As you can see, it is red and black, my school colors.  There were a couple of dragons available; I got the red one for school spirit.  This kippah cost me fifteen dollars on Etsy.

This was a freebie from someone's Bat MItzvah.  I did not know the Bat Mitzvah girl, but the family was holding the Bat Mitzvah on my college campus (the parents were both alumni), my favorite Rabbi was officiating, and they had extended an open invitation to students, so I went.  I was delighted to walk away with this kippah because I had really been wanting another blue one.  This one also has an attached clip inside, which I think is very cool.

This is another Yair Emanuel design.  This is my favorite style: medium sized, embroidered silk.  I have several like this.  They cost approximately ten dollars, plus shipping, on the Yair Emanuel website.  I coveted this kippah for a long time before I got it.

This is another Yair Emanuel embroidered silk.  I got it last Fall to go with my red college t-shirts, and I am pretty sure I wore it for the first time on Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year.  This is one of my two favorite weekday kippot.

And this is my other favorite weekday kippah! Yes, it's another Yair Emanuel, my most recent weekday kippah purchase from his website.  I earned the money for this one by selling back textbooks last Spring.

This is a Yair Emanuel, too, but it is just plain raw silk.  I expected it to be more gold than it is, but that is OK.  Its subtle color helps it go with more different outfits.

This was my first embroidered silk Yair Emanuel kippah.  It's no longer my favorite, but it holds a special place in my heart because it introduced me to this style.

 

This one is genuine Army issue! In the American Army, a Jewish soldier is allowed to wear a black kippah, a green kippah, or one of these.  My father is in the Army Reserves, commanding chaplains; we had a bunch of these hanging around our basement, so (with permission, of course) I took one.

This kippah came with my older brother's Bar Mitzvah tallit.  He does not do anything Jewish anymore; when I found this in a laundry basket this past summer, he said I could have it.  I believe the designer to be Gabrieli.

This kippah has perhaps the most interesting story of all: it was made by the women of the Ugandan Jewish community, also known as the Abayudaya.  These women make and sell all sorts of crafts--not always Jewish-related--as fundraisers for projects in their community.

This kippah is older than I am.  It is also huge; it can sit on my head and stay on without clips.  On Friday nights and holiday nights, I let my hair dry in natural spiral curls and wear it down with one of these on top.

This is another of my Friday night and holiday night kippot.  It was my high school graduation gift from my parents (I picked it out) and I think it is my favorite in my whole collection.

This is the one that is on my head today.  Yes, it is another embroidered silk by Yair Emanuel.

This is the kippah that I reserve for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial Day), and Tisha B'Av (the ninth of the month of Av, when we mourn the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem).  This is my most somber kippah, and I wanted to do more than I was doing to mark those days.

This kippah is stacked right before the camouflage one, but the picture did not load the first time.  It is black velvet, from my younger brother's Bar Mitzvah.  I do not have one from my older brother's Bar Mitzvah because at that point I had not yet begun to collect kippot.

This is what I call my "pajamas kippah," both because I think it looks as if it goes with pajamas and because that is when I wear it.  No, I do not wear a kippah to sleep, but if I am in a nightgown and I need a kippah, this is the one that goes on my head.  I really try not to walk anywhere without one on, and certainly I need one for eating, evening prayers, and morning handwashing, so I keep this one right beside my pillow and try to remember to put it on when I get out of bed.

Last but not least, this is my newest kippah.  In the stack it goes between the gigantic maroon velvet one and the gigantic one with colorful embroidery, but as with the one from my older brother's Bar Mitzvah, the picture did not load properly the first time.  This is also from the Yair Emanuel site; it cost me fifteen dollars, which I earned by selling back textbooks at the end of the school year.