What's in My Crochet Bag - Hat Collection Edition

Hey, all. Guess who's feeling good enough to look for the memory card today? Guess whose fever broke at about 10 a.m.? Guess who may even take off the pajama pants and wear jeans for a couple of hours this afternoon? That's right! This girl!

I was recently invited to a baby shower for a girl in my church. She's young, hates pink and her mom is the craftiest crafter in all of craftdom. What's a girl to do? Her mom is actually an amazing seamstress and is currently obsessed with her embroidery machine, so other than a few blankets, the crochet end of the layette was a little thin.

Enter, hats! I love a cutesy little baby sweater, but let's face it, their use is limited and this mom needs useful stuff. One of my favorite baby gifts ever was a little bonnet with a ponytail. I thought it was so cute and she literally wore it every day of her first winter. It was so much warmer than anything else I could find.

This one is my favorite. The picture sucks. Mostly because Maren had decided she was done sitting still and I had to enlist the help of Melody Rose, Brynna's Cabbage Patch Kid.

This was made using the Sweet Pea Bonnet pattern by Coats and Clark. This is the leftover yarn from Maria's afghan last summer. And I still have some more. The hat and small flower were done in the solid and the variagated was used for the large flower. I was quite happy with the way it turned out.

I kept the pattern changes to a minimum, but I did make a few in the name of cutting the yarn less often. A few slip stitches and I turned this into a one continuous strand project up until the flower.

This is my second favorite. The Crochet Pixie Hat by Sweater Babe. I love the shape of this hat, and the texture of it. I thought it was especially nice with this pale yellow. It should be very warm and cozy. This one turned out a little big. I think it may end up in storage until next winter, but in any case, it's pretty cute. What you don't see in my pic, but you can see on Sweater Babe's site is that this doesn't have a clumpy tie, but instead a pretty little tailored strap with a button closure.

Also, bar none, best tassle instructions I have ever read. I hate tassles and pom poms, so anything you can do to make them easier wins you brownie points in my view. And again, I can't tell you what yarn this is. I bought it years ago because I loved the texture, lost the label and never came up with a one skein project for it. Until now. Well, sort of. I could probably get three more of these hats out of the skein, but at least it's finally become something.

And, proving that hats are not just for winter, I present to you, the Baby Flower Bucket Hat (ravelry link). This is such a nice little summer hat, and with the open work on top, won't get too hot even on the steamiest days.

I chose to do this cotton, too, which should help in the not-too-hot department. Brynna picked the yarn for this one, out of my dishrag bag and while I like it, I probably would have chosen a solid, just to make that flower a little more pronounced. In any case, it's not pink.

I had planned on adding a couple more rounds to the brim, to make it a little more of a floppy sunhat, but I ran out of yarn. About the brim, though, I especially love the points.

The baby is coming at the end of this month, and I don't know about ya'll, but we've been hot this summer. I wanted her to have something that the baby can wear right away. Something soft and sweet and easy to wear, that won't get too hot.

All the open work on this Shell Stitch Beanie from the Dainty Daisy will make it perfect for the end of summer and the beginning of fall and the super soft yarn will make it perfect for baby. Hopefully, this can get her through until the warm months and then one of the ones above can kick in.

I hope that I've given her about a year of go-to hats.

In other news, I definitely need tips on photographing projects. Hint, hint, Suze. You're pics are always awesome. How do you do it?!?