Project Talk: Improving a Little White Hat

First of all:

My Bridges of Roses socks are actually completed, washed, blocked, and photographed! Now, they are all set to be presented to my mother-in-law for her birthday. Yes, her birthday was way back in August, but the socks are finally done! I've discovered that embroidery is not my strong suite. The roses still came out better than I expected and I actually like the lace cuff (I didn't think I would).

Now, onto the feature presentation:

My sister requested a ghost hat for my niece's Halloween costume, and I have it finished with a lot of time to spare (but, let's keep in mind that I do have to get the hat mailed to Seattle). I started out with my go-to hat pattern, Kim's Hats from Last Minute Knitted Gifts.

I went with the garter brim version, sized for toddlers. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft, which I had lying around. It's an acrylic, which I don't use very often. However, it's a Halloween hat, not a family heirloom, so I figured it was a good
opportunity to use up some scrap yarn.






Now, a little white hat is cute. But this needed something more. The first thing I added was ear flaps. Instructions to add ear flaps were with the pattern, it was pretty simple. Just pick up some stitches and add a little more garter stitch.

I also added some applied I-cord using black yarn.  Applied I-cord is a pretty simple way to add a little pop to edges. I used black Simply Soft to add the I-cord around the bottom of the hat and made the I-cord ties. This alone made a pretty cute hat, but I needed a pretty cute ghost hat. There was still work to do.

To change the cute little hat into a cute little ghost hat, I needed to add a face. Originally, I was going to duplicate stitch the eyes and mouth over top of the white stitches, but that created a wonkey looking ghost. Instead I broke out a trusty Sharpie and some stencils, traced the shapes onto the hat, and stitched right over the shapes. Finally, I decided a little black pom pom would finish off the hat quite nicely.

All in all, I think the hat turned out pretty cute for a two day project.  Now, I just need to remember to get it in the mail.