I was minding my own business working on the rainbow-inspired crochet hat with earflaps, when I (inadvertently) surfed the internet and found a crochet llama hat, that I couldn’t resist. So after I finished adding the earflaps to the rainbow-inspired hat:

I got out my hooks and went to my stash of the “seasonal” Capri yarn by Loops & Threads. It is a worsted weight cotton, nylon, and polyester blend that is perfect for making hats (among other things), and I found the perfect pink to make the hat I had found.

As I did with the rainbow-inspired hat, I started by doing a gauge swatch. I was not able to duplicate the designer’s gauge–I could get the correct height, or the correct width, but I could not get them both at the same time.

Lucky for me, Melissa, the designer, also has created this excellent “basic beanie” tutorial, and I was able to use that tutorial to duplicate the size of the hat despite not being able to duplicate her gauge.

In reasonably short order, I had the beanie and the earflaps done:

The tricking out pieces proved to be a little trickier, but after crocheting several ears that weren’t quite the right size, I finally managed to make two that were perfect enough, and I got the llama’s muzzle both crocheted and embroidered:

After taking a moment to enjoy and admire my progress, I decided to document the two hats for a toddler side-by-side:

There is a bit more work to be done on both hats, but not a lot, but when they are finished, I plan to make more hats for toddlers and babies while all of this information and knowledge is fresh in my head.