Make Something Monday: Hello Kitty Hats

I learned to knit and crochet when I was a young girl. I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I'm pretty sure it was under the age of 10. I learned some from my mom and some from my grandmother on my dad's side. Back then I didn't know how to follow a pattern. I didn't really make anything, I just kept knitting or crocheting.

About 10 years ago, I started knitting scarves. I wore them to work and people admired them so much they wanted me to make scarves for them. Some were for my friends/co-workers, others they wanted to give as gifts. I kept pretty busy knitting scarves for a few months!

Down the road, a friend showed me how to use DPNs (double pointed needles) to make hats. I made a few hats, but that was about it.

Then I had a baby and put away my knitting needs for a few years. I was afraid she would either poke her eyes out with the knitting needles, or pull one of my DPNs out of a project and unravel whatever I was working on.

A couple of months ago I decided to make Hello Kitty hats for my munchkin and her cousins. I got some white yarn and started knitting. It was taking a long time, but I knew the girls would enjoy the hats, so I kept at it. I had hoped to have the hats done by the time the family gathered in Carlsbad, California to celebrate a belated Christmas. That didn't happen.

Thankfully, Jenni from I'm Dancing in the Rain, shared a little secret with me: Crocheting goes a LOT faster than knitting! Man on man! She has a free pattern on her site that I used and got the last two hats cranked out in just a couple of hours each. Whew! I wish I'd know that secret when I started the project. Lesson learned!

I still have to finish embellishing all the hats and get them in the mail this week, but here's what they look like pre-embellishment:

This is the knitted version. 

This is the crochet version

If you're interested in making a Hello Kitty hat of your own, here is a link to the pattern I used for the knitted hats and embellishments. You could probably use just about any pattern for the white hat, then embellish it using the tips used on this blog. Obviously, that's what I did when I decided to crochet the hats!