Two weeks ago I was on a baby moon with my besties Andy and Kris.  We thought the baby boy would be joining us late October…but he couldn’t wait to get here!  Kris texted us at the end of last week thinking he might be coming soon.  My first thought was about his safety as well as Kris’ and my second thought was…shoot, I don’t have that beanie ready I promised I’d make him!  Just a week prior Krisi had been looking up baby beanies on etsy and would send me pictures of ones she thought were cute.  She asked if it was something I would be able to do or if she should order one.  I told her she could stop searching because I would love to make him one! I had never made a beanie for a babe before so this process was a little trial and error as you’ll see later.  I don’t use patterns most of the time and usually rely on my eye when crocheting.  All this to say…there aren’t super specific directions.

I had the gray on hand which is a tad bid heavier weight than the blue.  The blue yarn is baby yarn which tends to be softer than your average skein.  I love mixing textures when I crochet.  I stopped by Michael’s for the blue on my way home from a boba run and was so mad at myself for not having my coupons!  I almost went home (I refuse to pay full price for anything at Joann’s or Michael’s), then I remembered I had the Michael’s app on my phone! I opened it and it had a 50% off coupon waiting for me.  Total coast of this project $2.99! Bam.

Stitch: Half Double

Hook SIze: H

Step 1: I worked a circle by starting with 4 chains.  Typically I work two crochets into each stitch until I have made 1 round.  From there I do 2/1/2/ the next 2 rounds.

Step 2:  After 3 rounds or about the size of a quarter I switched to the gray to start a stripe.

  

Step 3:  It’s all about judgment in this process…if you see the work getting bubbly that means you are adding too many stitches and you should rip out as many as you need to and adjusting how many stitches you are adding.  Maybe switching from the 2/1/2 to 2/1/1/1/2.  To give you an idea I think I was adding a stitch every eight stitches by 5th round.  Once my flat coaster looking circle was about the size of my palm I stopped increasing and just crocheted one stitch in each loop which gave the circle a bit of a lift making it more bowl like.

Step 4:  I measured my finished product and compared it to average measurements of baby heads.  I was about an inch off (this is why you use patterns people). Sooooo…I scrapped this hat and made another one…which I made a bit larger before I stopped increasing.  You’ll notice that the finished product pictured a bit later starts with gray instead of blue!

  

Step 5:  I decided that just because he’s a boy, that doesn’t mean his hat has to be plain! Pom poms it is! I realize the poms were in a previous post but…who cares!  Similar to the yarn and fabric method I showed in the upcycled bag post I mixed colors.

  

Step 6: I added a little ear flap to give it the old school aviator helmet look and added the pom to the top.

Ooh La Loo! Baby Ryder fitting perfectly in his custom beanie!

   

I promise next time I’ll actually write down what I do!  Coming soon…video tutorials. Woo Hoo!