I whipped this up from my cotton ease stash:

If you don’t know me already, cotton ease is my all time favorite workhorse yarn. Especially for baby/kid items. It is a cotton blend, and it is machine washable AND dryable and breathable and soft and comfy. It can be a tad splitty for crochet, but if you are knitting with it, it shouldn’t be a problem at all (unless you are knitting with uber tiny sharp needles that are too small for worsted weight yarn). =)

Pattern is from here (or if you have Ravelry, it is here). I have to say, even though seaming is the ultimate suck, it doesn’t suck as bad when it’s crochet. You don’t have to make things super invisible as you do with knitting; probably because crochet fabric can hide seaming lines better than knitting.

So this is for a friend. Hope Leyton loves it! Sorry it is so late! (And sorry for the blurry pictures; with a mobile kid, it’s hard to get him to sit still for a good shot)

P.S. Totally unrelated (but still on the subject of baby hats), but I was in the midst of doing an Oscar the Grouch hat for my own kiddo (despite everyone trying to discourage me from doing it). The only person who was thrilled about the project was my own husband. Everyone thought the eyebrows (which are made from fun fur) were nasty looking. Even my own brother said it looked scary. I had never worked with fun fur so I gave it a shot. And OMG that stuff is NASTY!!!!!!!! It is like knitting with an ugly rodent in your hands!!!!! Never again!!! Turns out my kid accidentally pulled that project off my needles, so I take that as a sign that it probably belongs in the trash. I didn’t take any pictures of it because I don’t want to subject you to the horrors of that project. I’m a little sad about it because I thought Oscar the Grouch would have been a fun look for my kid’s head, but I guess now I know that fun fur is from the devil. Lesson learned. SHUDDER

It has been a long hiatus. I’m sure it’s implied why I have been away for so long. Life just got really hard. My lovable little guy has been a challenge to say the least. We are definitely now post-colic (THANK GOD) and have been battling insane sleep problems since Thanksgiving. Currently working on them (and seeing improvements, yay). And as you can tell, things are starting to slightly pick up, because now I actually have time to do something crafty.

The pattern is the Osito Infant Bear Hat (pdf link). Tres adorable, non? =)

I added ear flaps just to cover those tiny little ears from getting cold. My first time improvising with crochet increases/decreases. Easy peasy for a sleep deprived momma, I’m impressed and proud of myself.

Now that my little guy’s head is warm, let’s hope he sleeps better. Sigh.

Had the most surreal week ever. Overwhelmed, overjoyed, exhausted, bursting with love. My life has officially changed forever.

Right after birth; all cleaned up and meeting mommy for the first time:

Daddy and baby checking each other out:

Hanging out in the bouncer:

Big yawn:

Want to hear something funny? I was scheduled to be induced this past Tuesday, but the baby decided to get things started naturally a couple hours before the induction. And I had a crochet project packed away in my hospital bag. Yep, I figured during the induction I would be bored. Turns out, by the time I got to the hospital, I didn’t have time for a thing (things progressed way faster than anticipated). I suppose that crochet project will have to wait. (Maybe during nursing sessions when I’m also catching up on Project Runway and Top Chef episodes? Hehehe)

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ETA: If you can handle it, the birth story is here (password: nathaniel) =)