Slouching into Hats

My mom will be happy to know that I've been getting into hats lately.  It started when one of my friends wanted to know if I could make them a beanie.  I hadn't tried making one so I looked up a pattern on ravelry and got started.

Side note, I crochet really tightly.  So if you notice my patterns or anything not working out for you, that might be why.

Anyway, I tried making an R2D2 hat for my brother and it wasn't working out for me at all. It was so small even though I had already added a few more stitches.  Luckily, my brother has a small head, but even then it fit him barely.  So my first hat was a bust and, discouraged, I looked for another style of beanie.  I found a pattern for a slouchy beanie and decided to try and put a design on it. Since my friend wanted a Tako Luka hat (an octopus worn as a hat I guess would be the best way to describe that), I tried to put Luka's face on the beanie.  When I had finished the base hat and added the character's face, I tried it on and it went all the way over my head!  I was happy it fit but then I noticed that when it went over my head, the eyes were kind of where my eyes were and, BOOM, I had a new obsession. Slouchy beanie masks.

Tako Luka hat as hat:

Tako Luka hat as mask:

So I've started to make a bunch of them.  I've done a few pokemon like

Pikachu:

Drifloon:

And I'm still working on Iron Man:

But I think they're really fun.

Cozy Crazy

Went a little cozy crazy this week.  Made the Totoro one for my friend and she took it to her office.  The next thing I know, I'm making a ton!  I started off with the Cthulhu one because I was familiar with making tentacles.  The next day I had an order for a Doraemon one.   

The formula I use is one that I adjusted from Denton's Inventions.  I use the Red Heart yarn mostly so I found that my cozies weren't big enough.  The pattern is pretty forgiving and I mostly just freestyle the designs on after doing a rough approximation on graph paper.

Currently working through the Avengers.  I wanted to do the JLA since I love love love DC way more than Marvel but sadly, I'm lacking a few colors.  I still have to do Hawkeye and Fury.  I've been doing comic versions of the cast but can't decide whether to make Fury comic version or movie version.

Cozy:

1. CH 40, SL ST with first chain

2-4. SC all (3 Rows)

5. (9 SC, DEC, 9 SC)*

5-7. SC all (3 Rows)

8. (17 SC, DEC)*

9-10. SC all (2 Rows)

11. (8 SC, DEC, 8 SC)*
12. SC all

SL ST to end

All detailing was done with yarn, except for Totoro's eyes which were made with buttons.

Cthulhu Tentacles:

Coil A: CH 16, (2 SC, INC)x5

Coil B: CH 13, (2 SC, INC)x4

On Row 12: 15 SC, Coil A, SC, Coil B, SC, Coil A, SC, Coil B, SC, Coil A, 15 SC

For all extremity items like the wings and ears, I wove the long finished end through the outer edge of the wings/ ears to help them keep the shape.

Captain America's Wings:

1. CH 4, Turn

2. 3 SC, CH 4, Turn

3. 3 SC, 3 HDC, turn

4. 5 SC, CH 4, Turn

5. 3 SC, 5 HDC, Turn

6. 6 SC, CH 4, Turn

7. 3 SC, 6 HDC, finish

Totoro Ears:

1. CH 4, turn

2. 1 SC, INC, 1 SC, CH 1, Turn

3. 1 SC, DEC, 1 SC, CH 1, Turn

4. DEC, finish

Any ideas of what I should do next?