Our niece is OBSESSED with Frozen and specifically Elsa. Which I guess is like every other little kid out there at the moment.
We started looking into what to get her for Christmas and of course I immediately went to "what can I make her for Christmas". Little kids are so much fun to make things for because if it's something they'll wear, it takes much less time to make than anything adult sized. Plus you get to use fun bright colors, go overboard with it, and the crazier it is the better the chance is that they'll like it.
When looking, I stumbled across multiple patterns for an Elsa hat. They all had a long braid and a crown which was perfect for our little "no I'm Elsa!" niece. The patterns I ended up using were from HANDIY Tutorials and Tales of Butterflies. I liked the hat on HANDIY Tutorials, but I really wanted a more substantial and intricate crown.
We went to the craft store and actually compared yarn colors to some of the Elsa merchandise they had in the store to make sure we got the colors just right. I bought a one pound Stein of the yarn for the hair and didn't even use half of it. I'm hoping/planning to make more hats to donate or give away to people because I have so much, so I'd recommend buying less.
Once we got home it was one of those projects I couldn't wait to start and that went decently smoothly. I did have a few issues along the way, namely that I'm still pretty new to crocheting and I ended up putting a stitch in the last slip stitch in EVERY ROW. Needless to say, I had to start over when my hat for a 3 year old ended up weirdly shaped and able to fit me, but after I realized and fixed the issue it was smooth sailing.
I was looking for a slightly thicker braid than the way HANDIY Tutorials did hers so I used her suggestion and added yarn hair to every stitch instead of every other. I also went all the way across to create more of a part without a gap in the hair around the face. Adding the hair was easy but spooky looking and braiding went pretty well. I recommend looping a few strands of hair into the hat at the base of the braid to secure it better. Otherwise you may find it has a little gap and may not hold the way you want it to.
Once the hat was done I moved on to the crown. As a newish crocheter, it was intimidating. There was a foundation single crochet stitch (FSC) that I had never heard of in my life, along with a triple crochet which at best I had done once. I did a lot of YouTubing. This video is a great one for learning the FSC stitch.
The nice thing about the crowns, especially for beginners, is that they are only 4-5 rows. Yes it takes a lot of focus, but you can do anything for 4-5 rows I promise!
You may also have noticed I'm saying crowns… I'll chalk this up to being a beginner and having no clue what I was doing, but I thought I was making the second crown and didn't realize until I was on the last row that I had actually made the first. The first crown was nice, but it didn't quite fit my vision for what I wanted, so I finished it and started on the right one. This time I double checked.
Quick details:
Pearl hours: 8 total
Start to Finish: 2 weeks
Difficulty: Easy - Medium (depending on the crown style you choose)
Project thoughts:
I love how this hat turned out and I can't wait to give it to our niece! The project was fun and interesting and I learned a lot about crocheting and different stitches. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a special Elsa lover out there, baby, child or adult, both patterns have all the different sizes!
Pearl Tips:
- YouTube is your bestie. You can find 10+ videos on how to do any stitch
- For the hat, you can follow the hair length suggested with different lengths on different areas of the hat, but to make it easy I just did the longer length the whole way around. I had to cut longer ends off to finish it, but it was easier and there were no chances of mistakes
- You can add a gem or bead in the front for some extra sparkle and to help differentiate between the front crown point and all the others
Lessons learned:
- Double check your patterns, especially if you are new to crocheting
- Don't be afaid to try a pattern if it has new stitiches. Just make sure to pay attention
- Slip stitches do NOT = stitches unless they tell you to do something with them
How I'd do it differently next time:
- I’m not sure I’d do anything different honestly. It was fun to make and Project Update: She LOVES it!! We’ve been getting pictures of her out and about wearing it, including to school.
- I will 100% be making more!