Unicorn Beanie

Project Info

Pattern: Unicorn Hat by Holly G Hats

Yarn:

• Big Twist (Twinkle): 100 yards
• Carron Simply Soft (Purple): 100 yards
• Gold colored yarn from my yarn stash: 5-10 yards

While the pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn, I suspect it would be easier to get gauge with chunky yarn. Although it calls for size 5-6 needles, I ended up using size 11 needles which felt like a big jump despite having worsted weight yarn.

Time to Completion: December 27, 2020

Many restarts and pattern changes meant that this actually took a few days to complete, but the final unicorn beanie that I settle on was about a 6 hour project during one very long game of Civ VI and a couple rounds of bridge.

Project Notes: When I was about eight years old, I came across The Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville in my elementary school library and checked it out. It quickly became one of my favorite books and I read it repeatedly throughout the years. My cousin recently turned eight and something triggered in my memory fond afternoons of curling up with The Unicorn Chronicles and I decided this would be a fantastic, albeit late, Christmas present for her. And since I remembered that she had been fond of dressing up, I thought what better than to send her a book about unicorns and a unicorn hat that she can wear while reading it?

Scouting around Ravelry, I settled on the perfect hat, which, you may notice, is not the hat linked above.

Despite needing to be crocheted, I decided this was another opportunity to improve my crocheting skills so I pulled out my crochet hooks and started make a hat. Despite a strong start, the hat shape became more of a beret which wasn’t going to work. Another attempt yielded the same results and I realized it might be best if I stick with what I know and knit the hat and crochet the unicorn add-ons.

After following the pattern for the Veronica Ear Flap by Jaime from Everyday Art, I had an all white, kid-sized hat ready for unicorn embellishments to be placed on it.

After pinning on eyes, ears, horn, and one curl of hair for a test fitting (and belatedly realizing that I had done the eyes very incorrectly, giving my unicorn hat a sort of alien look), my family unanimously agreed that there was no way I could send this hat to my cousin. Despite my sadness at having failed to make my unicorn look as cute (or as obviously a unicorn) as the original pattern maker, I returned to Ravelry to scout out a new unicorn hat and discovered a lovely color work beanie, what could go wrong?

After a trip to the store to pick up yarn, and three gauge swatches later, I settled in with my size eleven needles and made my way through the ribbing and twenty-six row color work pattern. The hat was sized for an adult so I created a gauge swatch at 17 stitches by ~18 rows was ~4 inches, and when I began the decrease section, I omitted the knit across rows after I got down to knit 4, ssk around. Additionally, I switched the ssk instructions to k2tog for my preferred stitch angle on the decreases.

Once I’d finished the hat, I realized that it truly was begging for a pom pom. Not having the convenience of a pom pom maker, I returned to my own childhood pom pom making days and cut out a cardboard donut and started wrapping yarn around it (for those unfamiliar with the tactic, it’s like this — but without the gap in the cardboard, I always just cut it at the end). I almost immediately decided that Pom Pom making was an easy way to keep kids distracted for half an hour and no wonder I was always encouraged to make them by hand. Winding the yarn took forever and that was before it started knotting 😂. Eventually I finished the Pom Pom, tied it onto the top of the hat and declared the entire project finished.

Now I just have to wait for the books to arrive and the whole thing can be packaged up and mailed to my cousin for a very belated Merry Christmas present!