I'm Feeling a Little Froggy (An Army of Frog Hats)

Apparently, customers are crazy about frogs. Very crazy.

To date, I have made three frog hats, one just for fun over Thanksgiving break and two as custom orders. Where do I even begin?

We'll start with Jasmine's frog hat. Jasmine is the lovely, fashion-oriented, sweet young daughter of one of my favorite porcelain artists, Cindy at Colorado Art Studio (love her mugs, especially this one!) Jasmine wanted a frog hat with eyes. If I remember correctly, there was one like it in the movie Better by the Dozen. I hadn't seen the movie, and I don't care for Steve Martin (please don't flog me). So I improvised. I decided it'd be a fun time to play around, so I decided to try putting earflaps on it. But Jasmine hadn't asked for earflaps, so I decided to make them removable. Then I figured plain earflaps would be boring, so I decided to make frog hands for flaps. The actual hat was crocheted in Brown Sheep Lamb's pride, so it had a bit of fuzz. But I was pleased with the result. And, most importantly, Jasmine was, too!

Lessons Learned:
1) Frogs have 5 digits on their hands, not 4
2) Frog pupils are vertical, not horizontal (or, more accurately, diamonds, not slits)
3) Make sure your buttons are big enough to stay in the button holes
4) Anatomical correctness isn't necessary to make a freakin' adorable hat.



Second is the froggie hat I made over Thanksgiving break, just on a whim. It sold within two weeks of posting. This hat was just an excuse to get rid of the rest of my green cotton/modal Shine yarn from Knit Picks. But it was my first experience with beads as eyes. Still, it's an incredibly cute hat; no wonder it sold.

Lessons Learned:
1) Leave enough tail to sew on the eyes
2) Count your stitches before adding scallops
3) Cotton/modal = extremely slick. Too slick for aluminum.





Finally, a hat I *just* finished. A newborn frog hat with a button earflap instead of ties so as not to freak out the new parents (having a new baby, I can relate - I was paranoid about ties until I had to admit they saved sooooo much time). I made this hat out of Plymouth Encore, a fabulous acrylic/superwash blend. So soft, yet so durable, and very easy care. This being my third frog hat, it came together incredibly quickly with no major issues.

Lessons Learned:
1) You forget how tiny your baby was until you make something for a baby younger than your own
2) If you follow the ol' "1-inch less" rule for stretch, you end up with a very tiny baby hat
3) A large wine goblet = a great baby hat stand

And so my army of frog hats has been unleashed upon the world! Bwahahahahahaha! If you would like to be one of my minions, just drop me a line, and we'll make it happen!

(Many thanks to The Collective Noun page for identifying the proper collective noun for frogs.)