Elephant Hat by Brooke Rabideau

Halloween is coming soon! This means that in addition to my own daughter and her constantly changing costume demands, I also have friends asking if I'll help them with costumes for their kids. And time permitting I always want to help. My BFF Jennie, asked if I'd make an elephant hat for her daughter so she could wear it to pre-school with some gray leggings and a t-shirt and still be comfortable. And since I love Julia, I happily agreed. I looked all around for ideas for hats. Some were cute but had no pattern, some had patterns but the trunks looked weird and squashed down looking, and then I stumbled upon this Elephant Crochet Hat at All Free Crochet. The pattern wasn't exactly what I wanted to make, but it was close enough that I could adapt it. Plus, I liked the nose. It wasn't until later in the process that my friend Nicole pointed out that the pattern was by Repeat Crafter Me's Sarah, which makes so much sense. I devotedly read her blog and really love her stuff. 

So I followed the pattern for the first 5 rows, then added some DC's because I was making this hat for a toddler instead of an infant. I increased so I did 55 stitches at the max, and then added an extra two rows in order to make it a little longer. I kept the earflaps the same, but then decided instead of single crocheting around, that I would double crochet around so you could see more of the contrasting color. I used a pink color, instead of the gray, to make it a little cuter and girlier. And, since I did DC's in the chains hanging down from the ear flaps, it added some weight and made the strings twist into adorable little curly-q's!

Then I followed her instructions for the ears, but because I'd made the hat larger, the ears were too small and looked a little mousy. So for the outer edge of the ear (the gray color), I added an extra two rows of her Row 4, just adding extra DC, SC combos on to the end or either side to fill it out properly. For the inside of the ear (the pink), I only added one extra row.

And for the trunk, I just added two rows of single crochet to the end to make it a little longer. The main alteration I made there was making the magic ring (round 1) pink, and then switching to the gray color for the rest of the trunk. Although, once I put the trunk on... I wasn't entirely convinced this hat was going to look ... appropriate. 

But once I stitched the ears together and attached them, it started to look a little better. Then I had to decide what to do about the eyes. The pattern called for button eyes, but with a toddler at daycare it seemed like it might be asking for trouble. So I quickly whipped up my own little eyes. Here's the "pattern" if you want to make them. 

Back of the Eye (White) - Make 2 Magic Ring, Chain 1, and make 5 SC in the ring. Join and SC.  Row 2: 2 SC in each stitch (10 SC). Fasten off and leave a long string at the end. 

Inner Eye (Black) - Make 2  Magic Ring, Chain 1 and Make 5 SC in the Ring. Join and fasten off leaving a long string at the end. 

Sew the black "pupil" to the center of the white eyeball. Then make a French Knot out of white yarn like you would use if you were cross stitching or embroidering (there are lots of video tutorials on the web on how to do this). I put the knots of white just slightly off center, to give the eye a little bit of a twinkle. Then attach the entire eye to the hat. 

It still felt like the hat wasn't quite done. So I opted to add a bow. Originally I was going to make it pink, but it was just way too pink. So I opted for a nice bright purple instead. I did a pretty simple bow: CH 30. Turn. DC in second stitch from the  hook and then all the way across. CH3, Turn, DC into each stitch across. Fold the bow, then use a slip stitch to attach the two ends together.  CH 50. Bind off End. Wrap the chain around the middle of the bow, and tie the ends together. 

Of course, then I got talking to my friend Nicole and said that I might need to make a tail. And she said, "like Eeyore with the little bow" and then off I went making a tail that Jennie could attach either to her daughter's leggings, or to the tutu she may make. It was late, and I was too lazy to look up a pattern, so I just sort of played around with it and came up with this on my own. 

Tail Pattern Magic Ring, CH 1, Then SC 5 into the ring. Join (leaving the closed circle a little looser than normal. Row 2-8 - SC into each stitch (5 SC)  Row 9: SC Decrease, SC into next 3 stitches (4 SC)  Row 10- 14 - SC into each stitch (4 SC) Row 15: SC Decrease. SC into next 2 stitches (3 SC) Row 16- SC into each stitch (3 SC) Fasten off, leaving a long string. Then cut a few lengths of yarn. I cut about 6 inches. Pull each strand through the bottom of the tail, when you get to the middle, knot the yarn. Then when you've done all of them, cut the hanging pieces so they are all even (or you could leave uneven if you choose).  Tail Bow CH 24. DC into second stitch from chain, and then DC into each stitch across. Slip Stitch the ends together to make a circle. CH 30. Fasten off. Wrap around the middle of the bow and then tie. 

Sew the bow onto the tail and you are all set.