Kent State Hats for Little Fans!

My dad's cousin's wife, aka Aunt Becky recently comissioned me to create something for her
daughter's field hockey coach's daughters.  Could I use more apostrophes in a sentence? Anyway,  Alyssa plays field hockey at Kent State, so whatever I made had to be blue and yellow with a little white in the mix and it had to be something they could wear to games.  Immediately this pin came to mind.

Source: craftsy.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

Now if you know one thing about me you know I do not spend money on patterns.  I either look at the pic and figure it out or I find something close and alter it until I am happy with the results.  So of course through trial and error, I ended up making 3 hats.  My husband is constantly losing hiding misplacing the good camera so please forgive the poor image quality.  From left to right, they are size 0-3 months, 2T, and 6-9 months. 

What a perfect combination of school spirit and feminity!

My first source to hit up was ravelry.com where I found a pattern for the earflap hat.  It was a double crocheted pattern and it was easy.  I changed the striped part to half double crochet to make the color appear more vibrant. 

Next I needed a rose.  Coincidently I'd just started making roses for headbands that will be on my Etsy page (currently in development).  There will be a post about my tweaks later but here is the original pattern. 

Source: 2crazy4crafting.blogspot.com via Cheryl on Pinterest

The basic plan was in place but I had to have the perfect yarn in the perfect colors!  Since these hats were for little ones I was really picky about yarn.  All the colors I needed were already in my stock, but it was Red Heart SuperSaver Yarn. Don't get me wrong, it's a great basic, sturdy yarn, but being a mother, I want something very soft for my little one's head, which carries over to my projects.  Luckily, I had a 20% off coupon for Michael's AND some of my favorite yarn was on sale!!  (I know, I know, you can get wool cheap on the internet, but the crafter in me needs to touch and feel the yarn to make the selection).  Vanna's Choice is my go to yarn for softness, unfortunately they did not have--or my Michael's did not carry-- the vibrant blue that I wanted.  On to Loops and Threads Impeccable Yarn, SCORE, it was also on sale and had exactly the colors I wanted! 

Finally I cut 3 lengths of yarn in each color, looped it through the bottom of the earflap, then braided it. Voila!

 

Here's my son, the not-so-cooperative model.  My brother the budding photographer photographed him for me.