Birthday Presents

This month, we are in high demand suddenly, making hats for friends, then their friends, then their friends' friends. I finished this for a birthday present for a friend of my girls. It is a panda vampire. This panda hat which actually was my first crochet hat... http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3740199261849278041#editor/target=post;postID=624197365407989225 this is where I first posted the story of how my daughter accidentally purchased a panda hat... PATTERN which I was nice enough to turn into a hat for her.

Anyway this panda hat was my first crochet pattern. I have since seen many different and many similar online. It was an earflap hat with braids hanging down, intially. So it is modified for the purpose of this more modern present with mitt pockets for extra warmth and of course that is all the rage right now. And the fangs with blood.

All my hats have the same basic pattern, then I embellish. It ended up being a worthy investment, $7.00 for this hat pattern so I could tweek it to my purposes. I am always one to find something I like and make it mine.

Here is the basic hat pattern, which I use for a lot of my crochet hats. Then I add whatever I want to it, ears, eyes, hair, fangs, flaps, mitts, limited only to your imagination, and yahoo photos helps when creativity loses out...
I use an F hook. Use what you need to make the right size. Checking my Panda Vampire hat, I am at 2-3/4" diam. after round 3 for gauge.  My girls like their hats woven tight so you cannot see holes. And I am not a tight crocheter or knitter. Finished circumf. 20-22", 22-24". Yarn worsted weight.

Make a ML;

Rnd 1: ch2, 12hdc into ring (12)

PM in first hdc to mark beginning of round and replace marker at each round beginning when you move up.

Round 2: 2hdc in each hdc (24)

Round 3: *2hdc in first hdc, 1hdc; rep from * around (36)

Round 4 and all even rounds: 1hdc in each hdc around

Round 5: *2hdc in first hdc, 2hdc; rep from * around (48)

Round 6: as rnd 4

Round 7: *2hdc in first hdc, 3hdc; rep from * around (60)

Round 8: as rnd 4

Round 9: *2hdc in first hdc, 4hdc; rep from * around (72)

Kids under 6 or 7, I stop here and work 11 or 12 rounds even. Then I FO making it look uniform and neat in the back.

 

For everyone else,

 

Round 11: *2hdc in next hdc, 11hdc*; rep around.

from * around (78)

Work 13 rounds even, FO in back making everything look uniform and clean.

I don't have a size for babies but you can follow the same pattern idea to make it smaller for a smaller sized head, of course.

And, as with all patterns, if it is too big? Make it smaller. If it is too smaller, make it bigger. Wider, shorter, whatever. I call it the learning curve. Many projects big and small must be done, undone, and done again. Sometimes more than once, to get the desired project completion.

 

Elf Hat

Totally made the coolest hat the other day. I fashioned it off of a hat I found on Yahoo photos...

I don't know who made this doll hat. Originally I was going to make matching hats for M and her new American Girl Doll (which she is so sure Santa will bring for her.)

Crochet Elf Hat

Here she is now, sporting the hat I designed. Unfortunately for M, her 11 yo sister took it and made it hers. Now I have to come up with a new idea for M and her doll.... Santa better deliver this year! (:-)

Gir (pronounced GRRRRRRR)

 

Our Hat craze started here. Well not at this 4th of July Festival, but with the hat Bree Rex is wearing. Her Panda hat. This is actually where my crocheting WITH a pattern begins too. You see I have been crocheting since I was a little girl, but i didn't understand how to read a pattern. I just knew how to do what i knew how to do. Then about 7 years ago my mom taught me how to knit without a pattern too. One day I saw a friend knitting socks at a soccer practice for our girls. I told her what I hear people say all the time... "I can knit scarves but that is about all. I cannot read a pattern." And she graciously set me up to read patterns and MAKE MY FIRST socks!!!! What an autumn that was. But I digress. Bree Rex found Etsy one day. And she was captivated by this website. All the cool things people were making!! Then she came to me, "Mom I found the hat I want and it is only $7.00 on etsy. It is a panda hat and I HAVE $7.00. So being the busy mom I am, I told her ok, showed her how to make a transaction, collected her money and was on my way. Well a couple weeks later, and still no hat, I looked up to see what was going on... she had not purchased a hat, but rather a pattern to crochet a hat. Sigh. The tears that flowed!!! SO I know crocheting, how hard can a pattern be. After all I know how to read a knitting pattern. AND I know where to go to look for a better understanding of anything I don't know... YOUTUBE. SO I learned and crocheted her this panda hat she thought she couldn't live without.

 

 



Invader Zim Gir Hats

 

 Then one day the girls saw a Gir hat. Do you know who Gir is? Gir is the dog on this show called Invader Zim. And Gir's fav food is waffels and tacos. Apparently it was all the rage. And I had a special place in my heart for Invader Zim. This Zim is actually an alien trying to act like a human on Earth. So he does all these things that are rediculous and then he stands up and looks around and says, "I am normal." I find this the funniest thing. Because I think we all feel like people are spying the alien in us sometimes. And we want to be normal. So I made 4 Gir hats, two for my girls and two for their friends.

And so started our obsession with hats...

That, and I undreaded my dreadlings of 5 years...


and can again wear normal sized hats...



Yay for the hats, sad for the dreads gone.

 

Fish and things

Way back when , Bree Rex convinced me to purchase this book at Half Price Books called KnitWit. She adored this squid and it was a must have. Now Bree's knitting skills are good, but she complains on how long knitting takes. She is young and not quiet at the knitting-is-a-relaxing-thing-I-do-when-I-Am-Avoiding-What-I-Should-Be-Doing stage like me yet. She wants immediate gratification.

Anywho she worked on it, put it away for a few months, came back to it, put it away.

I had told her that once she finishes the squid I will crochet a coral reef bed for the little guy.

And then I knitted him a friend...

 

The coral bed actually taught me to make the curls that I taught Bret to make for her Pinkie Pie Hat. So yay for experimenting.

Gone so long

Boy it has been forever. Not because I don't love to blog, but because so much else has taken over my life. Here are a few things my girls have been up to lately...

This is Bret with her Pinkie Pie (My Little Pony) hat that she made this last week. If I get time I will post the basics for the hat pattern that we use. Same pattern, many uses.

 

This is Bree Rex. She is sporting her first hat. When I finally gave up trying to explain to Bret above about why her skills weren't hat worthy and showed her what to do (obviously determination is bigger than skill) Bree soon demanded to learn too.

 

 

Now although Bret just wanted a Pinkie Pie hat, Bree has bigger ideas. This was her second. She gave it to me because she thought it looked good on me. I am wearing it even as I type. :-) Her third is a Micky Mouse hat she is currently working on. She is thinking Etsy or our unschooling Kalahari gathering kids market where kids can sell their wares.

 

My kids are amazing. They amaze me daily!!