13 October, 2010

FO: Crochet Giraffe Hat


Here is a free-hooked crochet giraffe hat made for another twitter buddy, @MikeDistracted.  He saw pics of a Domo-Kun hat that i made for @SumoChewie (will post that one later)' and wanted me to create a hat for him. 

I am not a huge fan of making the same project over and over... there are exceptions... but i just love the challenge of figuring out how to make something come together.  That's probably one of the reasons i always have 5 or 6 or 30 WIPs going, at any given time.

 I admit it, I have craft ADD ... i get a project started and immediately, i think of several other projects.  And I also know that if I dont start these other projects, I just might well forget my ideas!

I really didnt want to make an identical hat to the one I had made for @SumoChewie --- first off, that was made just for her... it was my going-away gift to her.  And then there is copy-right issues...


So I asked Mike what kind of other ideas he had for a hat... turns out, he likes giraffes... so much so that I know he has a giraffe tattoo!


Well, the thought of a giraffe hat tickled me ... kind of like the Chemo hat i made for my cousin, Lisa.  (She mentioned "eyes in the back of her head", and that got my noggin gears turning!)  I am weird, what can i say? LOL

 sooooooo... then i took some time to figure out how I wanted to do this... I dont mind telling you that I did a lot of "frogging" before coming up with the winning plan :-)

 First, I googled images "crochet giraffe hat:" and then "giraffe" --- and then, I got to hooking! :-)
<-- he looked a little "surprised" when i first attached his eyes ...  i quickly decided that he needed eye lids! :-)


 I used Lion Brand yarn, Vanna's Choice, to be specific.  The colors and textures just seemed right to me ...

I chose Toffee and Mustard ... i ended up using 2 skeins of the mustard and 1 of the toffee.  I am not sure what brand the eyes are made from... some leftover acrylic stash.

I probably could have gotten by with a skein of each (there was a little left over) but because of the soft-sculptured horns, i wanted to make sure that the base of the hat was sturdy enough... so i ended up piecing together a liner for it.

<--- i really love how the free-hooked spot came out!

 This project took me a couple of months... although much of it was spent just trying to decide how to put it together.

 As you can see from the pictures... most of the components are quite simple... just a few tricks to form the shapes...


I would have to say that the nostrils and the spot on the back are my favorite parts of this project.

<-- time to put him in the box with a note (and the left-over yarn for repairs, if needed)


He is safely packed away and traveling to his new home in Greenville, SC.

I cant wait to see a pic of him perched atop @MikeDistracted's head! :-)

6 comments:

Loree Jackson said...

So cute!

Feral Housewife X said...

thanks so much! i had a lot of fun making this one! :-)

Unknown said...

Adorable! Simply perfect! My 5yob luvs dinos, & my 3yob luvs GIRAFFES. Have a free patt for a dino, but haven't come across 1 for a giraffe. Any idea if you could possibly grace/bless me w/ the steps you took to make such a detailed, artistic piece of work. I'm 34, & if I loved giraffes as much as my 3yob, I'd definitely make 1 for myself. Crocheting mom of 5 kids, always broke but never bored. Surviving 'cause my closet's full w/ yarn. If you don't have the patt, do you know where I can find 1 as detailed as yours? Pretty pretty please!!! My 12yog wanted a rasta hat w/ scarf, 10yog wanted an extra thick earflap hat, 2yog wanted a tulip hat-made it. Everything I crochet for them comes out gorgeous. Maybe it's that it's made w/ lotsa luv. Maybe it's that I'll pull out stitches when I see I screwed up along the way. However, I make them happy with my crochetions. I pick unusual colors, but my point always gets across to whomever the viewer is. Thanking you in advance for whatever help.

cupcake said...

This is adorable! Where did you get the pattern for it? Would you be willing to share? I'd love to make one!:)

tonya o said...

This is adorable, how can I obtain a pattern for this had.

Feral Housewife X said...

Thanks so much, everyone! i so much appreciate all of the compliments. so sorry for my late repy...

unfortunately there is no pattern for this hat... i just kinda made it up as i went along. but don't fret... it isnt hard to create your own hat...

i started with a simple basic beanie... then i created all of the "components": eyes, nose, mouth, horns, ears, spots, etc

feel free to look at the blog pics to get ideas for the components (most are very basic shapes)... trust me, you can this!

then you just stitch the pieces onto the hat... i DO recommend that you put the hat on a styrofoam head or something to kind of stretch it out while you are working on it.

if you make a hat... i would love to see it!