Urban Jungle Slouchy Beanie

pattern: Urban Jungle Crocheted Slouchy Beanie, free download from Vickie Howell
yarn: I Love This Yarn! solids, in burnt pumpkin
hook: size J / 6.0mm crochet hook

As I've been working through my large yarn stash (how did it get so big all over again?!) I've been knitting hats to donate for a Chicago food pantry. A woman I met on Ravelry is collecting hats for her local food pantry's annual Christmas party - last year they had over 1,000 kids show up!

I sent off a box of hats to her earlier in the week, but as it's just the beginning of October I know I've got tons of time still to knit and crochet up hats. I'm trying to be sure to make them using washable yarns like Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn, and have tons of it in my stash!

The Urban Jungle Beanie has both a knitted and crocheted version; I made the crochet version because I like the look of it a lot better. The bobbles were super fun to make, and I'd like to make the hat again, but with the following mods next time:

• I'd make the brim only 2" wide, rather than the 3" this brim turned out to be
• I'd make the body of the hat to 10" rather than 11" - too long!
• I'd make the brim in the size crochet hook listed, but make the body in a size or two up in hook, to give the yarn a bouncier feel.

Not bad for a free hat pattern, as far as mods go. I never end up using patterns as-is, and so I thought I'd try it with this one. And it reminded me I actually worked up a similar pattern of my own a few years ago - the Puffball Hat. I didn't like a few things about it, but now I know the mods I need to make in order to get the pattern back into circulation!

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{This is charity knit 289/10,000. I'm knitting 10,000 items for charity in my lifetime as part of my Ten Thousand Project.}