A Crocheted Christmas

Since I seem to be addicted to my crochet needle these days, many of my Christmas gifts this year were crocheted hats.

Last fall, a friend of mine ordered two hats for her children, sending me pictures from Pinterest to imitate. I delivered them to her just before Christmas when we got together for a visit.

From Pinterest board to...a cute bear hood modeled by my son Jadon!

From Pinterest board to...a darling "newsboys" cap for my friend's baby boy!

 I looked for gift ideas for my brothers for weeks. It's so hard to come up with homemade gifts for guys! As soon as I saw some "Angry Birds" hats on Pinterest, my search was over.  



Above, my inspiration...below, my brothers!

My husband and I just got back from visiting his extended family in Virginia for the holidays. It took over 19 hours in a rental car to get there. When I wasn't entertaining my almost-four-month-old, I passed the time finishing presents for the girl cousins and my sister-in-law. I fell in love with these wide flowered headbands on Pinterest...



 ...so I made my own version for the girls!

Wide multicolored headband, modeled by me!

My husband was able to find books for all but one of the uncles and guy cousins. Since his extended family originated in Pittsburg, they are all Stealers fans. Naturally, I crocheted a hat of Stealers colors for the last cousin:

What a merry crocheted Christmas it was this year!

Pinterest Project: Crocheted Yoda Hat Tutorial

My most recent crochet challenge was a Yoda hat for the one-year old son of a friend. I found a picture of a Yoda hat on Pinterest to use as a model. My friend approved of the picture, and I got to work.


My Pinterest inspiration

The basic hat form was quick and simple. The ears were another story. How was I going to get these trademark ears to stick out so that people could tell that it's Yoda?

Pinterest saved the day again! I remembered recently posting a picture on my "yarn yarn yarn" board that I thought was really clever. Someone shared a photo showing how they got crocheted bunny ears to stand up: pipe cleaners!



Crochet pipe cleaners along the edge of the ears! Genius!

I had to try the idea on my Yoda ears.

I started by tying the corners of my ears to the pipe cleaner to anchor them down.

Then I crocheted the edge of the ears, making sure to cover the pipe cleaner completely.

Next, I wound the ends of the pipe cleaners together to create a strong base. This is the side I would attach to the hat.


Completed Yoda ear!

I attached the ears last night. Jadon had no idea that he would become a model this morning! It looks big on him, but it is for a kid who's more than one year older, after all.


"When two months old you reach, look as good, you will not, hmmm?"



Crocheted Hats Galore!

I've found myself in the middle of a hat-crocheting marathon.

It all started in early October. A friend invited me to sell some baby hats at a craft booth that she and her mom manage every year. They were looking to expand their inventory and knew that I'm rather crafty. Since I discovered that I could nurse Jadon and crochet at the same time, I cranked out about a hat a day and handed them over to my friend to sell at her booth. Here's a sample of the hats, all with multi-colored yarn:

Then a different friend (who had received a pink hat from me at her baby shower) told me that a woman she knows wanted to buy a similar hat from me for her baby, but in blue. Here's the result:

After I finished this hat, it was sitting on my desk during a third friend's visit to my apartment. She oohed and ahhed over it, and asked if she could buy hats for her two daughters. She wanted one to match a pink coat and one to match a purple coat. I soon finished them:

This week yet another friend said that she wanted to purchase a "dragon" hat for her daughter. I did a quick google search and found this inspiration:

By this time, my little Jadon was getting bigger fast, and I couldn't crochet and nurse as easily. But I found another way to multitask: babywearing and crocheting!

When he gets fussy, I throw him in my wrap, tuck a ball of yarn behind his back, and start pacing and bouncing around the room. Puts him to sleep every time. For this hat, I decided to ditch the ear flaps and tie and came up with this:

                                           (front)                                                      (back)

I still have two other friends expecting babies in a few months who also want hats! I'm having the time of my life with this creative outlet. Any other requests for a crocheted hat? I make the little flowered ones for $15, and custom hats for $25. Pretty much anything you see in a store or on Etsy I can imitate.

Bring it on!