Grumpy Cat Hat

Right now I have a long list of projects to work on. I have a craft show coming up on March 1 that I'm trying to restock for. I have eleven items on special order, with three of them being for February birthdays. None of that mattered last night. I was bored with following patterns and wanted to see what I could whip up from the bag of scrap yarn beside my chair. There were some very small balls of brightly colored yarn in there from the Rainbow Sock Monkey hat I finished up over the weekend. I looked through my "inspiration folder" (patterns and pictures I've printed out lately that haven't made it into my pattern notebooks yet) and saw the pattern for a Grumpy Cat stuffed animal. I wanted to try making a hat similar to that pattern, but knew I'd have to make some changes. It used screw-on animal eyes, which certainly wouldn't work on a hat. I had a ball of white yarn, and some scraps of brown, blue, black and pink, so I got started.

As I said, I had just made a sock monkey hat from Sarah Zimmerman's Crochet Sock Monkey Hat pattern over the weekend, so I used her instructions, a size H hook and white knitting worsted (about 1.3 ounces) to make the beanie itself. (I made a 0-3 month size.) Below are the instructions for the embellishments I used to make a plain white beanie into Grumpy Cat.

The  eyes are made in three sections: eye patch, eyeball and eyelid.

Eye Patch (Make two)
With brown yarn and size G hook, make a magic ring.
Round 1: Ch 1, make 8 hdc in ring. Pull to close. Join with slip stitch
Round 2: 2 dc in each stitch (I like to start my rows with a chainless double crochet rather than a chain 3. Here's a tutorial on how to do it.
Round 3: 2 dc in first stitch, dc in next, repeat around. End off, leaving long tail to sew on.

Pupil (Make two)
With blue and size G hook, make a magic ring.
Round 1: Ch 1, 8 hdc in ring. Pull to close. Join with slip stitch. End off, leaving long tail to sew on.
Thread a yarn needle with black yarn. Using a double strand of yarn, make a long stitch from top to bottom of the eyeball.

Eyelid (make two)
With brown yarn and size G hook, make a magic ring.
Chain 3, make 8 double crochet in ring. Pull tight, but do not join. End off, leaving long tail to sew on.

Sew Pupil to Eye patch, then sew on eyelid.

Nose:
With pink yarn and size G hook, chain 8.
Row 1: Sc in 2nd stitch from hook and each stitch across (7 sc). Chain 1, turn.
Row 2: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next 3 stitches, SC decrease in next 2 stitches. (5 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 3: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next stitch, SC decrease in next 2 stitches. (3 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 4: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next stitch, (2 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 5:  SC decrease in first two stitches (1 Stitch). End off, leaving long tail to sew on.

Mouth: With pink yarn and size G hook, chain 10. End off, leaving long tail to sew on.
(Note: I started by chaining 20, but when I positioned it on the hat, it was much too long. If you're making a larger hat, and have more room for the mouth, you can make a longer chain.

Sew nose on hat. Sew mouth chain under nose (I folded  the chain in half and positioned the mid-point directly under the point of the nose to make sure it was even.)

Ears:

With brown and size G hook, chain 10, leaving enough yarn before your chain to sew ear to hat.
Row 1: Sc in 2nd stitch from hook and each stitch across (9 sc). Chain 1, turn.
Row 2: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next 3 stitches, SC decrease in next 2 stitches. ( 7 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 3: SC in each stitch across. Chain 1, turn.
Row 4: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next 3 stitches, SC decrease in next 2 stitches. ( 5 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 5: SC in each stitch across. Chain 1, turn.
Row 6: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next 3 stitches, SC decrease in next 2 stitches. ( 3 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 7: SC decrease in first two stitches, sc in next stitch, (2 stitches). Chain 1, turn.
Row 8:  SC decrease in first two stitches (1 Stitch). Turn (without making a chain).
Row 9: Slip stitch in first stitch. End off.