My friends have been sending me cat videos where the animals are wearing these adorable handmade crochet hats, so I knew that it was only a matter of time before I made one. I saw patterns for fruit hats, animal ears, and everything in between, but as a tribute to going on a cattle drive for the very first time last spring, I decided Annie deserved a cowboy hat.

• 1/5 skein of Lion Brand Lion’s Pride Woolspun – a bulky weight (5) yarn (colour A: Pumpkin)
• Scraps of Scheepjes Catona – a fingering weight (1) yarn (colour B: Snow White)
• Size G (4.25mm) hook

Pattern by Rebecca at PAWsome Crochet

I feel like I’ve only been doing big projects lately, so the satisfaction from finishing a quick project was a nice surprise! At first, I was worried when I couldn’t find a nice brown yarn in my stash, but thankfully orange and brown aren’t that far apart in the colour spectrum. I also didn’t have a 4.50mm hook, so I sized down by a quarter of a centimetre. The only change I made to the pattern itself was to crochet the white yarn directly onto the hat itself, as I was worried that loose pieces could be dangerous for Annie.

I had so much joy in making the hat that I completely underestimated how tricky it would be to get a good picture of Annie actually wearing it. As it turns out, she wasn’t a huge fan of something strange on her head, even though it was made with so much love. I was wondering if having larger ear holes might have made it more comfortable, so I’ll give that a try if I ever make another hat.

In the end, I settled for sneaking the hat onto Annie as she was reclining on the couch. Whenever I tried putting it on her head properly, she would shake it off quickly, so I stopped trying. My friends suggested that adding a chin strap would probably help keep it on, but I don’t want Annie to have to wear something that she seems to hate. For now, I’m just hoping to acclimatize Annie to the concept by having the hat next to her. Maybe someday Annie will wear it like the true cowboy-cat she is.

Until next time, happy crafting!