Pooh Bear Hat!

I love AA Milne. I love the original Pooh stories and I love all the poetry, too. When my oldest was a baby, I decorated her nursery in Classic Pooh. Love, love, love.


So when a customer requested that I make a Pooh hat, I was obviously excited!

I knew I wanted to use bulky yarn, similar in style to the Polar Bear hats I'd made in the past. And then I decided that the pattern I used for those hats would be a great jumping off point for my Pooh hat.

So I used the pattern found at Repeat Crafter Me. She is amazingly talented and has inspired me in so many ways. I don't have my own pattern for chunky yarn hats so I used hers: Repeat Crafter Me Polar Bear Hat Pattern. I recommend you do the same if you want to make this hat with chunky yarn. Follow all of her instructions, including the ear flaps BUT NOT THE TRIM!


Supplies:
Yellow yarn - those chunky skeins don't have a lot of yarn to them so you will need two!
Black yarn
Red yarn
Two black buttons (optional)
Small amount of stuffing for the nose
Crochet hook size I
Yarn needle
Scissors

 Trim:

After following the directions from Repeat Crafter Me, trim your hat in red yarn, like Pooh's shirt. Single crochet around the entire thing, including ear flaps.


Ears:

With yellow--
Magic Circle
Round 1: 7dc in the magic circle. Pull tight.
Round 2: 2dc in each stitch around (14dc)
Round 3: sc in each stitch around (14 sc)
 Fasten off. Leave a long tail for stitching onto hat. Make 2, of course!

Nose (the nose has two parts):

With Yellow--
Magic Circle
Round 1: 8hdc in the circle. Pull tight.
Round 2: Chain 1. *hdc in first stitch, 2hdc in next stitch*. Repeat * * around. (12hdc)
Round 3: Chain 1. *hdc in first two stitches, 2hdc in third stitch.* Repeat * * around. (16hdc)
Round 4: Chain 1. *hdc in first three stitches, 2hdc in fourth stitch.* Repeat * * around. (20hdc)
Fasten off. Leave a long tail for attaching.

With Black--
Chain 7.
Row 1: Beginning in second stitch from hook, hdc across. Turn. (6hdc)
Row 2: Chain 1. Hdc decrease. hdc in next 2. Hdc decrease. Turn. (4hdc)
Row 3. Chain 1. Hdc decrease first two stitches and then hdc second two stitches. (2hdc)
Fasten off. Leave a  long tail for sewing on.


Eyes:

I like to use button eyes but for babies and small children, if you worry about the choking hazard you can crochet eyes from black yarn:
Magic circle
Round 1: 10hdc in magic circle. Fasten off. Leave a long tail for stitching. Make 2!

Braids:

Cut strands at 3 feet long for an adult, slightly shorter for a child size. This is really customizable to your preferences. Just remember it's folded in half so the braids will actually only be half the length you choose.

Yellow: Cut six.
Red: Cut 12.
Black: Cut 12.

Split the strands in half so you have 3 yellow, 6 red and 6 black for each side. Use a crochet hook to pull through the end of the ear flaps. Pull all strands so they are even and then divide into three sections and braid. I use a scrap piece of yarn to tie the braids off. Trim the bottom of the braids so all strands are the same length.


Assembly:

1. Center the yellow part of the nose about one row up from the bottom of the hat. Stitch about 3/4 of the way around and then fill with stuffing before sewing the rest of the way shut.

2. Add the black part of the nose to the top center of the yellow piece. Yes, you could sew the black part on before attaching the entire thing to the hat. However, I tried that more than once and it continued to look crooked. I found I had more control this way. You can experiment, though!

3. Add ears. It helps to pin them in place until you feel like they are even. Don't worry if they aren't the first time. I usually have to re-sew ears at least three times before they look right to me!

4. Sew your eyes on.

5. Stitch on some eyebrows. To do this, I googled pictures of Pooh for reference to help guide me.