The Gruffalo

I will let you in on a little secret, this wasn’t the first hat I made but it was the one that made me start to think Imagine a Hat could become something.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is read daily in our house.  He comes out on dog walks, to forest school and to the theatre with us. If we include a few of our Imagine Friends, Fable the Fox, Sage the Snake, Oslo the Owl and of course Max the Mouse we can act out the whole book.

Every child who has popped him on and played with him has obviously loved him, he certainly turns a few heads whenever he is worn!

Zog

Another Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler classic which again is regularly acted out at home.

I wish I had caught it on camera but we walked into the Old Vik in Bristol to watch the theatre production and the staff behind the bar clapped and whopped as my daughter walked in with Zog on her head-it was quite a moment.

This hat is brilliant fun, with a giant tail, spiky horns and fantastic wings he is great for running around learning to fly high through the sky or landing with a bump as we heal animals with the flying doctors.  Zog is an amazing addition to our collection!

The Cat In The Hat

Sooo I make hats and I make cats so how could I not make The Cat in the Hat by the magical Dr. Seuss?

He’s a big one but he has to be and not only was he fun to make he is fun to wear too!

My Cat in the Hat is a bit of a mishmash of lots of my Imagine Friends!

His intarsia face and and little nose is taken from Harriett the Hedgehog. Facial features come from Casey the Cat with two buttons for simple eyes. His red and white hat has been stolen from Sydney the Snowman although this one is much, much,  much, much taller!

The Grinch

I think my daughter has a bit of a love-hate relationship with The Grinch. She loves Dr. Seuss and all his rhyming books and did ask me to make her a Grinch or a Mr Grunch as she calls him when I wear the hat, but I think she is slightly scared that he will steal her Christmas too.

This hat was very simple to make with the Grinch’s signature green. My Grinch has a puffed out snout, small nose and an embroidered smile.

I have brushed out the yarn for his fluffy fur.  Yellow-shaped eyes with button pupils and I topped him off with a quick Santy Claus hat and pom pom!

Elmer

After I made my Eden the Elephant, I set myself the challenge of replicating Elmer.

Obviously Elmer is a picture book classic with a cheeky patchwork elephant by David McKee.

I was drawn to the patchwork and vibrant rainbow colours.

I could use some of Eden’s pattern but had to design the patchwork and totally redo the trunk.  Her trunk had wrinkles whereas Elmer’s is smooth. Eden also has tusks which had to be removed.

Elmer may be big and bold but he is definitely fun and flamboyant.

There’s a Dragon in this Book

This book by  Tom Fletcher is brilliantly interactive, with blowing out fires and popping of water balloons.

Imagine how much fun we had after I knitted our very own dragon.

She is one of the more difficult hats to make as the wings are rather detailed but it is all worth it when reading the story and my little one is running around the room flapping her wings and swishing her tail to put the fire out. 

The bright colours and friendly design make this dragon a perfect addition to our storytelling.

Pete the Cat

We love Pete the Cat by Eric Litman, James Dean & Kimberly Dean.

This year my daughter wanted to dress up as Pete for World Book Day.

I used my pattern for Casey the Cat as my base with some obvious colour changes, changes to the ears and some different embroidery work. I also bought a yellow t-shirt sewed on some buttons and finished it with some white sneakers. 

She spent the whole day singing about the colour of her shoes.  Needless to say, they were not white when she got home but they were certainly wet! But it’s all good!

The Cheshire Cat

I am slightly obsessed with Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll and I can’t be a Mad Hatter without a Cheshire Cat, can I?

Believe it or not I have used my pattern for Casey the Cat again, obviously I have designed the stripes and changed the eyes.

The difference in shape comes from using fluffy blanket yarn which is purr-fect for his round face.  For his eyebrows I stole some feathers from Oslo the Owl – he won’t mind.

I love knitting in such bright colours and the softness of the cosy wool just adds to the effect I was trying to achieve.

I adore him!

Clifford

I had a request from my nephew a while back to knit Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell.

I jumped at the chance because I wanted an opportunity to show how versatile my patterns can be.

Believe it or not Clifford is actually Devin the Dog in disguise.

All I did was ignored the instructions for Devin’s spots, made the main colour red, gave him a black collar, embroidered some eyebrows and hey presto I had made a Clifford.

Really simple but extremely effective.

Pennywise

Ok…I know… I am all about children’s books and Stephen King’s IT really doesn’t fall into that category, however, I wanted to do something a bit more scary for Halloween and Pennywise is such a recognisable character with distinguishing features that I couldn’t resist being a bit naughty and replicating this horror novel icon.

I started off by giving him his ruffles, made his forehead slightly larger and stuffed it, then brushed out the orange yarn to shape his hair. I knitted his smile but used my felting needle to finish off the mouth and add his teeth.  Super fun to make and great for Halloween but think I have still kept my child-friendly Imagine a Hat style.