Crochet Monkey Hats

by Ashley Weeks Cart

Sunny turns two next week (that’s a whole 2! fingers), so I am in full on birthday planning mode. I thought I’d share one of the projects I’m doing for her party, and I’ll do a full coverage post of the main event two weekends from now.

The theme is monkeys because well, they’re adorable and Sunny has a beloved stuffed animal monkey, ever-so-creatively named MONKEY. Listening to her imitate his monkey noises is priceless, so why not build a whole day around it? Banana treats and all!

Here is an image of the invitation I designed and emailed out to her guests (saving both paper and money!). It’s lacking my personal info, because this is the WORLD WIDE WEB, y’all, and I gotta be careful or who knows who will crash this rocking two year old birthday:

As you can imagine, everything relating to the party will pull from the monkey/banana theme established in the invite.

I decided that for the troop of toddlers in attendance I didn’t want to go the cheesy party hat root. No, I’d rather go the crocheted monkey hat root. Obviously! The hats will serve double duty as festive party ensembles AND favors for the kiddos to take home. Also, I am dreaming of a photo of the six kids lined up donning their hats, but the likelihood of convincing an under-3 year old crowd to all wear their hats, simultaneously, and pose for a camera is slim. Very very slim. I mean, just look how pleased Sunny was to test-drive the hats for mommy this afternoon:

I’m finished with half of the hats, and will create a special birthday girl monkey hat for Sunny to wear on her big day. The pattern was very simple to piece together, so for all you savvy crocheters out there, give it a try.

Materials:
Yarn in the colors and thickness of your choosing
A crochet hook appropriately sized for said yarn choice
Scissors
Tapestry needle

Directions:
1. Start by Googling “earflap crochet hat patterns”

2. Choose a hat pattern you like and get to crocheting! Once the hat is complete, you can trim the hat in another yarn color of your choosing.

3. For the ears, crochet in a round use a single crochet stitch, expanding out to 24 stitches. Do one round of 24 single crochet stitches after you’ve expanded the circle to 24. That will allow for the slight curl to the ears. I found that going any bigger than 24 stitches on a G-sized needle made the ears too floppy and they didn’t stick out appropriately.

4. Attach the two circle on either side of the hat, remembering that a monkey’s ears are low like human ears. Not at the top of the head like a bear or puppy dog.

5. Now go, monkey around! And wish me luck coercing the kids into all wearing their hats, AT THE SAME TIME!

Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Weeks Cart