The Owl Hat and a Natalie Update

A few days ago I realized that I had a LOT of unused Caron Simply Soft yarn.  Over the years, I have purchased different colors for different patterns, and I never quite used up the whole skein.  So many colors!  What should I make with them?!?!  ;)  Then I remembered that I had downloaded this free pattern for a baby owl hat!  (I only make things from free patterns these days...  Why spend $$$ on a pattern when I can get so many awesome ones for free online?)  Of course, I had to make this hat for Natalie.  It only took me a few days.  If I had nothing else to do, I bet I could've made it in just one day, but who has time for that?  I did a few things differently than the pattern suggests, so if you're interested in that, I've written it all down after the pictures.

How cute is this hat?  I just love it!  How do people make these patterns up?  It's so impressive.  :)

This is the best picture that I could get of little missy yesterday.
ONE smile in ONE picture that was actually in focus.  Ha!

So beautiful.

Natalie turned 14 months old yesterday.  And she was NOT in the mood for pictures!  haha  I have countless pictures of her taking off the hat.  The following pictures are what I like to call her "fussy face."  I love them!  So cute!

"Mama, I don't want to take pictures!!!"
Look at those teeth.  Love!

Alright, details about the hat.  I wanted to make it a little bit big, in the hopes that it will last her a while.  I tend to crochet pretty tightly, so I did the 66 chains that she calls for for the big kid hat.  (I made the hat out of worsted weight, and used the hooks that she specified...  In this case, I for the hat and H for the eyes, etc.)  I did not work the tube in a spiral, but worked each row separately like I would for any hat.  I made it 6" long.  For the contrasting trim, and I did one row of sc in green, and one row of crab stitch in pink.

I thought the ear flaps that she calls for were entirely too huge, so, instead, I made the ear flaps found in this pattern.  I used hdc instead of sc, though, and did ch 2 whenever she calls for ch 1.  For the green contrasting trim, I did 15 sc up and down each side, with 2 sc in the tip of the ear flap.  For the pink, I just did 1 crab stitch in each sc.  I used 6 strips of yarn in each of the 4 corners (6" each in the top corners and 16" for the ear flap braids), and attached them the way this pattern says to.

I think those were the only changes I made.  Do any of you even care about that part??  haha!

I so wish that Natalie had smiled for the next picture.  She still looks beautiful though, doesn't she?  Such a great picture of her.  

At 14 months, Natalie is cutting her first molar.  She is in pretty good spirits despite that, though.  She hasn't said any words yet, but she babbles and jabbers all the time!  She is very smart, and clearly understands a huge chunk of the things we say to her.  She even made her first animal noise last month.  An elephant!  Check it out:

She is also a master at feeding herself with a spoon, and makes very little mess in the process.  She gets super excited when I tell her that it's time to brush her teeth, and she runs to the bathroom.  She often nods or shakes her head in answer to a question.

Hopefully soon I will find the time to edit and post pictures of other things that we have been up to.  Until then!