Easy Double Crochet Donation Hats

Ever since I moved to LA, I've wanted to crochet hats for babies at the UCLA Hospital. I finally got around to going to the NICU and asked about crocheted hats for the newborns and preemies, and they were very excited at the prospect. Since they didn't have any specific yarn material or color preferences, I decided I'd make a lot of different colors with different brands of yarn.

I started out with a Caron One Pound test, to see whether I could soften up the hats by washing (since I know that the cheaper yarns aren't exactly soft enough for sensitive baby heads right off the skein). Luckily after a wash and two dry cycles, it came out incredibly soft and plush. I went ahead and made some more hats from Craftsmart and Red Heart Super Saver to test as well. The Red Heart got softer, but the Craftsmart didn't. A few of the hats are miscellaneous yarns I got on the clearance rack at Michaels that were incredibly soft and plush.

Overall I made something like 28 hats! Phew!


Here are the patterns I used, mostly preemie and newborn but I also made a few of the larger ones.


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Super Mario Toad Mushroom Hat

This project was made by my mom!

This is an original piece by my mom. The inspiration came from these mushrooms over at WolfDreamer's blog. Instead of working the Toad hat from the bottom up like the mushrooms were, the hat was done cap down.

The yarns used for this project were Impeccable Kelly Green, Impeccable White, and Red Heart Soft Off-White. The five white circles were made from the white yarn and sewed on. The eyes were made by gluing on black felt. The base of the mushroom was crocheted with the off-white yarn.

I will be posting the pattern for this soon, so keep an eye out!

Super Mario Hat

This project was made by my mom!

The pattern for this hat was written by Laura Michels over at Crazy Crochet Lady.

The hat took less than one ball of Red Heart Red yarn, and a small amount of white yarn for the logo background. The M was cut out of red felt and sewed on. I love the way the hat turns out like a hexagon due to the evenly spaced increases. That almost gives it stability, especially since the Red Heart yarn is a bit stiff.

Bumble Hat

This project was made by my mom!

As soon as my mom and I saw this on Ravelry, we knew we had to make one! The pattern is by Rachel Solberg and can be found on Ravelry either on her profile or on the project page itself.

The yarns used for this project were Impeccable White, Lion Brand Fun Fur White (two balls), Caron One Pound Black, and a light blue yarn we had leftover from years ago. For the pupils, we attached black safety eyes to the white yarn.

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Hunny in my Tummy Beanie

I found this pattern after many days of searching, and it was finally posted by JezeBearDesigns on Ravelry (for free, even!) when I had almost given up hope. My friend loves that certain honey-loving bear, so I made this for his Christmas present.

For this project I used Caron Simply Soft in Sunshine, and a small amount of some scrap black yarn. This beanie crocheted up quickly, and the pieces were quite easy to make when I was short on time. I even crocheted part of the hat while waiting for a doctor's appointment! I love this yarn because it's so soft, and I hope the recipient does too!

The only trouble I had with this project was that the yarn is a bit thinner than "normal" worsted weight yarn, so I had to make many more rows than the pattern suggested. This wasn't really a problem, as I simply added more rounds of simple double crochet once the rounds stopped increasing.

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Snow Bear Scoodie Update 2

Snow Bear Scoodie pattern is by Dearest Debi.
See my original post on the Snow Bear Scoodie.

I finally finished the hood and scarf on the scoodie! I had to adjust the pattern by starting the straight edge at round 9 (round 11 of the original pattern). Additionally, I only made 17 rounds total. The hood is a bit large, but I quite like it that way. I prefer it slightly large rather than tight.

The hood used a bit over two balls of yarn. The scarf used the rest of the third ball, plus three more. I ran out of yarn exactly at the end of my scarf, which was lucky. I used black yarn to stitch the pockets together, then I turned the pockets inside out so the "seam" is on the inside of the pocket. I used a long tail I had left on the end of the hood to stitch the hood to the scarf.

The hood by itself took just over two balls. I continued with the same ball of yarn to making the scarf. The scarf took three balls plus the extra from the hood, so the hood and scarf took six balls total. I still need one more skein for the ears. I possibly could have had enough had I further reduced the number of stitches in the hood, but I like it larger.

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Snow Bear Scoodie Update

Snow Bear Scoodie pattern is by Dearest Debi.

I've been busy lately so I haven't gotten to do much with this project. This post is almost more to remind myself to edit the pattern than for anyone else, but I figured people might be interested if they chose to undertake this project the same way I did.

Because the Paton Bohemian yarn is size 6 rather than size 5, my hood is turning out much larger than I think it is supposed to. It seems almost the correct size after only 14 rows, and I know going to 27 rows will make a tablecloth at this rate. What I'll do is measure using the gauge to determine where I need to begin making the straight edge (where the hood attaches to the scarf), and take out rows up to there. I'll also have to determine how many stitches would be appropriate for the length of the edge; 6 stitches might be too many for my yarn choice.

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Snow Bear Scoodie

I've been looking for a hat/scarf/pockets pattern like this for a while, so when I saw it on Ravelry by Dearest Debi, I knew I had to make it! I already had the yarn in mind: Paton Bohemian. I chose Hypnotic Haze, with the goal of making a snow leopard-colored hat. I bought one skein of the yarn to begin with, simply to make sure that I was able to work with the super bulky yarn. I don't know if I'll be able to go back to any other kinds now, because it's just so soft and silky. My first skein of 68 yards made the first 8.75 rounds of the hood. I'm hoping that I won't need a full 10 skeins, so I'm buying them slowly, but I also don't want to mess up my project by getting different lot numbers. The pattern suggests a K hook, so I used that. I would have upped the hook to an L but I don't actually own one still.

Here's the photo from Dearest Debi's project: (Click to see pattern!)

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Cat Corpse Hat

Last night I finished my Cat Corpse Hat! I used this pattern, originally by Witchy Wiche.

I made some changes to the pattern. I used the front leg pattern for the back legs instead of dealing with the triple stitches, which would have given the legs large holes for fluff to fall out. I also made the hat itself a bit shorter, as stuff touching my forehead makes me itch and sneeze for some reason. It took about 1/2 of a skein of Craft Smart Aran Fleck yarn, using an H hook.

When I wore this out and about, just about everyone that saw it stared, and several commented about how cute it was!

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