Elephant and Lion Hats

I remember being in North Carolina visiting my sister on a trip in 2015 and browsing a craft store together. I bought two of these Top This hat kits on the bargain table for $1 each intending to make them up immediately. Well you know how that goes. I rediscovered the kits for an elephant and a lion hat in my sewing room the other day and decided that four years had been long enough in temporary storage. Inspired to knit them, I was  surprised to learn that they take merely two to three hours each. Possibly wanting more in the future I researched and found that Mary Maxim still carries these cute hats with animal heads called Top This! by DMC. They are also available other places like JoAnn's and Amazon in a wide variety of heads other than the soccer ball, owl, and elephant pictured in the photo.

The yarn is 78% acrylic and 22% Nylon, and comes in a 2.82 oz ball, enough to make a toddler hat or an adult hat size small. It is self striping with three colors: a solid, a multi color, and another solid with a definitely different fuzzy texture. The non fuzzy portion has a kind of knit cording rather than twisted strand composition. In the following photo, the cording can be seen best in the green and the magenta.  The yellow and the orange are the fuzzy ones.

That two-three hours execution time I mentioned...?  Well that does not count the time of my expeditions before hand. I had to run out specially to buy a shorter 16" long circular needle in US size 8. Apparently I own circular needles only in larger lengths in order to accommodate a large quantity of stitches. The pattern calls for US size 9 but I tend to knit loosely and so went down a size. Two rounds into the hat, I abandoned the circular needle in favor of double pointed needles. My hands were cramping working in the confines of such a small circle. The pattern called for 60 stitches and instead of using four needles and knitting with the fifth I used three and knitted with a fourth. That way I could have 20 stitches on each needle and put a marker midway to give me divisions of ten. This was handy for the decreases which were distributed six to a round near the top. That cheery lilac face on the left is a "yarn cozy" that I bought a few days ago to keep balls of yarn tidy. See post for 1/16/19. I was trying it out and it worked well.

The hat instruction on the inside of the Top This label are quite simple, 10 rounds of ribbing, 15 rounds of stockinette stitch and then the decrease rounds for the crown. To keep track, I have an app on my cell phone called Tap.Count that cost me $.99 to download. Yes, I know I could use a pencil and a piece of paper but this is kind of convenient to have nearby and just touch to increment. (I am also less likely to throw out my cell phone, than I am to inadvertently toss a piece of scrap paper.) In the decrease portion within six sections near the crown of the hat, I had a round where there were 10 stitches between markers, then 9, then 8, etc.  Rather than count rounds, I used the app to help remind me how many stitches I was supposed to have between markers by decrementing... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. I included a screen shot of the app on the left and a screen shot of its description on the right. I must admit I have been unable to figure out how to increment by anything other than "1" as touted; but then again, I have yet to find a need to count by 2's, 5's, or 10's, at least not during knitting. Maybe my version of the app is not current.

I must admit, the foam backer for attaching the animal head was well glued onto the yarn label. Peeling it off took some persistence because I was being careful not to tear or distort it. I made sure to orient the side with the residual glue against the knit portion of the hat and not outfacing where it might stick to the wearer's hair.

Here is the finished elephant hat. It is really not so pointed at the top like a cone head.

It looks that way because initially I set it over a Hershey Kiss pillow to photograph it.

Stretched over a bowl it looks much more suited to a normal shaped head.

At the website for the Craft Yarn Council I found this head circumference chart with guidelines that a toddler's head typically measures 16-18 inches in circumference. This finished hat measured 13" in a non-stretched, relaxed state but the ribbing can easily stretch to 18". I am hoping it will fit snug enough to stay on but not so tight as to constrict blood flow to the brain. If it is too small, I may make another but have to substitute another yarn for the top of the crown. I have 1.2 oz left out of the original 2.8 oz, which is not quite enough needed for a second hat. If math is to be believed, the first one required 1.6 oz. The elephant head can be easily transferred to the second, larger hat.

I am about to start a second hat out of orange and pink for a lion and have lined up my tools. To be less concerned about size, I plan to use US size 9 needles as called for in the pattern, swapping out the US size 8 that are in the photo. The lilac yarn cozy with the face worked out well so I'd planned to use it again for this hat. Actually, I forgot to use it! But then I did the hat all in one day and it is not like the yarn got bounced around and scuffed up in my knitting project bag. 

Again I will forgo the circular needle, even though I'd also bought a 16" one in US size 9. I'd first thought working with double pointed needles would be more cumbersome, having to stop and switch needles three times a round, but that definitely proved not to be the case, at least it was not for me. I put 20 stitches on each double pointed needle and put markers to designated where 10 stitches fell. I was very careful not to twist when I joined. The beginning of the round is conveniently marked by the strand of yarn left over from casting on.

I did need to be careful that stitches did not slip off the either tip of the needles. When the stitches were centered all was fine, but once or twice I did see a dropped stitch. It occurred at the transition between needles during the stockinette stitch portion where stitches are not compressed so close to each another as they are during ribbing. The wayward stitch had not traveled far down though, and I was able to fish it up easily. The following photo shows just how close those end stitches are to the needle tips. 

The head is very easy to attach since it comes with its own ribbon ties. I tie a bow and double knot it on the inside, leaving the ribbon length untrimmed as is. The head can be removed for laundering or for transferring to a different hat. The character head is 100% polyester so I do not think it has to be removed for laundering. I think that perhaps it might take longer to dry however. 

Voila! The completed Lion head hat is smiling at me. I love how the yarn banded itself and where the fuzzy orange stripe landed.

Using the US size 9 needles the circumference came out slightly larger, maybe by about 1 inch, to 14". It is stretchy enough it is hard to measure for sure.

The elephant and lion buddies look cute side by side. I can just imagine the photo will be even better when it is the children who will be wearing them standing be side by side.

I am crushing on these knit hats right now so I will share with Main Crush Monday #144.