Week 3 - Crocheted Baby Cloche

Crocheting has become a new hobby of mine.  That means that throughout the course of this challenge you will likely see many of the crochet projects I come across on Pinterest.

I have never made a hat, as working in rounds seemed tricky at first.  I finally gave it another shot and it worked.  YAY!  A few months back, my childhood friend, Nikki, gave birth to her second son, Collins.  Unfortunately, due to unforeseen complications, Collins left his family and all those who loved him to be with God.  After losing her beautiful son, Nikki decided to that something good should come out of such a tragedy.  She started a cause called Caps from Collins.  Through this cause, she collects and crochets caps that she then provides these caps to the NICU at a local hospital and to Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  The caps are given to the children in the NICU who are fighting for survival.

Nikki's story was what inspired me to learn to crochet.  Being a mother of two, I could not imagine the pain of losing a child, and wanted to be able to help make the caps that are sent to those children fighting for their lives before they've even had a chance to begin living them.

I found the link to the Pin through AestheticNest.  Anneliese has the original tutorial posted here, as well as a downloadable pattern here on Scribd.com.  The pattern has several sizes you can use, to make the cap fit babies from 0 months up to 12 months.

Despite what the pattern called for, the only yarn I had available at the time I made this was Bernat Baby Sport yarn.  It was leftover from an afghan I had just finished for a friend.  To make the cloche a little thicker, I opted to use two colors of the Baby Sport:  Peach Blossom and Baby Pink.  Then I used one strand of the Soft Yellow to make the flower.  I still used an size H hook to get the gauge right.

I love the eyelets at the bottom of the cloche.  They give it a girly touch.  

And in the end, the hat kind of looks like it belongs back in the 20s on a flapper girl.  I think I'm going to try one using brown and a baby pink yarn, or maybe a sage green, to give it a vintage feel!