My sister asked me if I could make a hat that looks like a football for her son. She showed me an example she found on Pinterest -it was a crochet hat in bulky yarn for a newborn. Her son will soon be 1 year old, so something that small just isn’t going to cut it.

After much searching, I decided that this hat was the closest to what she had in mind; she needs the hat to have strings because apparently my nephew likes to tear his hats off if they aren’t secured.

Alas that pattern has been discontinued, and is only available in a kit. Furthermore, it’s sized for an adult head. So I’ve decided to roll up my sleeves and improvise, using that pattern as inspiration.

Photos to follow, work in progress.

PS - I hate acrylic but I won’t spend LYS prices on something that he’ll grow out of in a few months.

3/24: Almost done. I duplicate stitched the laces on last night, but I’m not sure I like how they look. I’m considering tearing them out and embroidering them on instead.

3/25: Complete! I tore out the duplicate stitch and now I’m glad I did. The new laces look much better.

Now the big test - will it fit and will he like it? If it’s a hit, I might type up the pattern and make it available on ravelry. I’m a bit nervous about this one…I’ve altered a pattern, but never designed one from the ground up.