Granny Stitch Sun Hat

Granny Stitch Sun Hat free pattern by My Merry Messy Life. A very cute hat but I used a size 4mm hook and it came out sized for a premie baby so I’ll have another go and probably with different colors. 

It won't go to waste or frogged through. I will donate it to a Neonatal ICU in my area. :)

Holiday BYATWF!

Panda Ongiri had to get ready for the last BYATWF. So I made him a lil Santa hat to wear. All ready now but he’s getting a little Grey around the edges. I think he’s getting ready to retire soon if I can’t find a way to give him a touch up. :p

 

Here is the last BYATWF for the year, holiday version. We did last min. prep for a baby shower. Lots of crafting was done. :) But it was all worth it. :)

 

We hope your holiday prep is going well. :)

St. Patrick's Day Crochet Projects

St. Patty's day is right around the corner. If you guys haven't done any projects, here are a few that I've found that's fun to do over the weekend to celebrate the holiday. :)

Here are some Free Quick and Easy Clover Crochet

1. Shamrocks by Planet June 

2. Clover Crochet Embellishments by LilySong

3. 4 Leaf Clover by Panda8ngel Creations

4. Crochet Shamrock Ornament, Pin, or Embellishment by Happier Than Pig in Mud

<3 <3 <3

Other Free Cute Crochet Projects to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

1. Lucky Leprechaun Hat Pattern by Micah

2. Happy St. Patrick's Day Hat by Jennygurumi

3. Celtic Knot Pin by Jennifer E. Ryan

4. Shamrock Headband Crochet Pattern by Red Heart Yarn

<3 <3 <3

And I just had to end with these 2 adorable Leprechaun Amigurumi. They are not free but they ready to bring some fun and luck to your party. :)

1. Mike the Leprechaun by Fresh Stitches

2. Little Leprechauns by Ham and Eggs

<3 <3 <3

I hope you guys have an awesome weekend and a great St. Patrick's Day!! :)

Year of the Snake Amigurumi and Crafts

Here are some cute amigurumi and crafts to help celebrate the Year of the Snake! :)

Stephanie from All About Ami, has come up with another adorable amigurumi for the New Year. I can't wait to make this cute snake. And you can too! Her FREE pattern can be found here. She has also posted about her design process so you can see a little behind the scenes action. (the link is on the post) It's so cool to see how this little snake was born. :)

Little Muggles has also come out with a very cute snake pattern for the New Year. The FREE pattern can be found here. I hope you will check out her other kawaii amigurumis. :)
 
And Tokidoki has made a very cute red envelope Snake pattern for your parents to give you money in. :) Or your friends to give you gifts in. hehe You can download it for FREE, here.

 

This is not my usual cup of tea in terms of crafts but it's so cute! This easy paper snake tutorial can be found here.

Happy Chinese Near Years! And welcome the Year of the Snake! :)

Crocheting for a Cause

I whipped up all of these goodies for the Sept 29th Soldier's Angels Baby Shower for the Marine 1st Recon wives. I had a lot of fun trying out all these cute baby hat patterns but I think it's time for me to do something else. What else? I have no idea. I have some ami on my list and some jewelry. But that's my to do list so who knows when I will get to that. hehe Stay tuned. :)

1. Tricycle Diaper Cake

2. Dragon Baby Hat

3. Baby Bear Hat

4. Pink Baby Girl Hat

5. Shell Stitch Beanie

6. Baby Baseball Hat

7. Purple Flower and Grey Pacifier Pouch

8. Green Pacifier Pouch

9. Football Baby Earflap Hat

10. Baby Bunny Washcloth

11. American Flag Newborn Hat

12. Granny Stitch Preemie Hat

I have posted about each piece individually but I didn't want to link them here. You can find them all in the archives. :) Congrats to all the new moms!

Tricycle Diaper Cake

I've always wanted to make a diaper cake but at my first baby shower, her sister made one. It was cute but I was happy when I had an excuse to make one myself. :)

There are a lot of tutorials on the web on how to make one but these two seemed the easiest to understand and most complete: Diaper Motorcycle tutorial by Sweet Aprils and Tricycle Diaper Cake Tutorial from Maiden D'Shade. I looked for the Tricycle diaper cake tutorial when I was starting to put mine together but couldn't find it until after I was done. :p  So, I didn't put the front wheel between the two back wheels. I also couldn't get it to fit right so I just put the back 2 wheels together. :p hehe 

For next time, put a paper towel or toilet paper roll core in the center of the cake pan or use a plain bunt cake pan. It will make it easier to shape the diaper wheels. :)

Materials:

- Glad Press'n Seal Wrap (to cover the diapers to protect them from dust and dirt.) 

I wanted the mom to be able to use the diapers as long with everything else.

- Baby Bottle for the Head Light

- Diapers, size 1  for the wheels

- 2 bibs for the front bumper and seat

- 2 receiving blankets to tie it all together

- Teddy Bear as the rider

- String to help the receiving blankets hold everything together

- Ribbon to keep things together and as a decorative touch

- Toilet paper roll core to give the handle bars structure

- Double sided Tape to help hold it together

What I made:

- Angel Washcloth (Wrapped around the baby bottle)

-  Baby Hat in the baby bottle

- Baby Mittens for the handle bars

If you want to see how I wrapped it, keep scrolling below. :)

Panda's Tip of the Day:

I made a base for the diaper cake to sit on to give it more structure and stability instead of just wrapping it as is. I used double sided tape to make sure it didn't shift during transport. :)

Next, I wrapped everything with the cellophane wrap, added the shreds, and tied everything with ribbon. :)

I hope the lucky Marine wife and mom to be loves it and uses it. hehe

Crochet Shell Stitch Beanie

I needed one last beanie to replace the one I put into the diaper cake and All About Ami posted about this cutie. So, I had to try it out. :)

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft

Hook: 5 mm

Pattern: Shell Stitch Beanie by the Dainty Daisy

My Adjustments:

Round 1: Magic circle

Rnd 8-14: Instead of chain 3, I use the "fake double crochet"

Round 16: Crab stitch aka Reverse single crochet

Circumference: 5.5 inches

Height: 4.5 inches

Crochet Baby Baseball Hat

I had made a Football Baby Hat so I wanted to do a Baseball Hat. :)

Aww...someone wanted to try it on. I think it's a little big for him though. :)

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft

Hook: 5mm

Circumference: ~12 in

Height: 4in

Pattern: Army Newsboy Newborn Hat by Stitch 11
I made it in all white.

My Changes: Brim: I ch1 before turning at the end of the rows.

(It makes turning easier but my brim didn't turn out so nice.)

Note:
I will have to make this hat again and see what I can do better. :p
I also did not like the slip stitch border because it made the hat less stretchy.

Panda's Tip of the Day:
I used some spare green yarn to do a running stitch where I wanted the red stitches of the baseball to go. It makes it easier to keep the baseball stitches in the right place. I am not good at free hand. :)

Other Crochet Baby Baseball Hats! :)

This one is by the same lady, Stitch 11, who has a free pattern for this hat on her blog.

If I do make another one, I would like to change the color of the brim and edging.
This one is super cute! And there's a free pattern but in diagram form!

Crochet Butterfly Newborn Hat

This hat is cute, easy, and quick to whip up. It took me about an hour. :)

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft

Hook: 5mm

Circumference: 11-12 in

Height: 4 in  

Pattern: Butterfly Hat - Newborn by Alli Crafts

No Changes! OMG! hehe But I really don't like working in rounds because the chain 3 join at the end of each row makes for an ugly seam. I take the tail and sew up the seam so it is not so obvious.

Panda's Tip of the day:

Make the last ch in your ch 3 a little looser, it will make it easier for you to join at the end of the row.

Fuzzy Chunky Crochet Baby Bear Hat

A Quick and Easy Newborn Hat with Ears

For once I actually used the same yarn and hook size that the pattern did. O.o I know! I surprised myself too. I would feel like I'm the in the Twilight Zone if I do not make any adjustments to the pattern either. :p hehe

Circumference: 12 in
Height: 5 in

Yarn: Loops and Threads's Country Loom

in Landscape

Hook: 6 mm

Pattern: Fuzzy Bear Newborn Hat with Ears by Alli Crafts

I did have to change a very small part of this pattern.

I crochet in rounds on the ears instead of in rows.

That's all. :)

I did have some trouble working with this fuzzy yarn because I couldn't see the stitches.
Panda's Tip of the Day:
Here are some ways I helped myself see the stitches.
Keep an eye out for the center thread. It is usually what is taught/tight. That is how you can see the stitches.

I also added bobby pins to help me keep count of my stitches.

Along with counting, I just felt for the holes between the stitches and relied on my muscle memory.

Thankfully, this yarn is so fuzzy, it would probably hide any mistakes you made. :)

Football Baby Earflap Crochet Hat

Here's another hat for the Solider's Angels of California Baby Shower.

I thought it would be cute to make a football hat for a baby boy.

Yarn: Lion Brand Yarn's Vanna's Choice

in Chocolate and White

Hook: 5 mm

Circumference: 14 in

Height (not including ear flaps): 5.5 in 

Pattern: Football Hat by Sandra Clifton

Adjustments: On the ear flaps

I used an invisible dec with dc and when I turned

for the next row, I invisible dec in the back loops (aka the right side)

I stopped after 6 rows and used the space between dc to thread the ties.

Because I was using a thicker yarn I was thinking of just making the preemie pattern so that the size would come out to a newborn size. After I did a few dc to check the size, I thought it wouldn't make the hat too much bigger if I worked the newborn pattern. I was wrong, I should have gone with my first instinct. But it did allow for the baby to grow into the hat and to wear it longer. More football games with dad. :)

Here is another free Football Crochet Earflap Baby hat Pattern from Jenny and Teddy



And I love this idea of making it for a girl baby.
Daughters like to watch football with their daddies too. :)

American Flag Crochet Newborn Hat

An American Flag Hat for the son or daughter of a hero seems fitting. :) Yep, another Hat for the Solider's Angels of California baby shower.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft

Hook: 5 mm

Circumference: 13 in

Height: 4.5 in

Hat Base Pattern: Newborn Baby Hat from Crochet Spot

Adjustments:

Round 1-5 in Blue

Round 6: White

Round 7: Red

(Because I used a smaller hook size, I thought the hat would be too small.

Since I knotted the yarn after the color changes, I had to increase here instead of in Round 5.

*dc, dc, 2dc* around)

Round 8: White

Round 9: Red

Round 10: White

Round 11: Red

I don't like weaving in too many tails so I just carried the yarn along the back.

White Stars Pattern: Tiny One Round Stars by Fiber Flux

I put on 7 so that it would be a luckier number. :)

Top of the Hat

My finished American Flag hat. :)

This American Flag Beanie form Ambassador Crochet was my inspiration.

But they did something like this to the top and I didn't want to figure that pattern out right then so I went for an easier route. :)

Granny Stitch Preemie Baby Hat

My latest baby hat for the Solider's Angels California Baby Shower.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft
in Orchid and Grey Heather
Hook: 4.25mm

Base Hat Pattern: Granny Stitch Sun Hat by My Merry Messy Life
The pattern is for a 3-6 month old baby so I adjusted the pattern down to fit a newborn.

Round 1: stop at 9 hdc instead of 11
Work the rest of the pattern as stated

Round 2: ends with 18 hdc total

Round 3: ends with 24 hdc total

Note: when I changed to the grey color on the Granny Square Stitch part, I actually turned and stitched the other way. It was the only way to get the stitched into the right spaces. :)

I ended up with a hat that measures:
Circumference: 11in
Height: 4in

The pattern states to fasten off and join for each color change but I didn't want to weave in all those ends so I carried the yarn along the back. I don't think it looks too bad so I'm sticking to it.

Because this hat came out so small and is for a newborn, I didn't want to do a big floppy brim.
Instead I crochet on this easy Shell Edging pattern.
Round 1: 1 sc into each st and ch around
Round 2: 1 sc *skip 2 sc, 7 dc into next sc, skip 2 sc, 1 sc into the next sc*
repeat around

The hat is cute but needs a little embellishment so I crochet this Teeny Tiny Flower and added a grey button in the center because the flower gets lost a little without it.

Finished and so cute!!! I need to make more boy baby hats now so stay tuned. :p

Update:

Sara from My Merry Messy Life honored me by asking me to link this post onto her Link Party, so I did. :) Please check it out. :) She has lots of very cute patterns. :)

She is so sweet...she also featured this post on her Sunday Fan Tribute Post! I hope you guys go check it out! :)