[crochet] Little Lion

I haven't picked up knitting needles or a crochet hook since April. Since the Sock Madness stuff. It's been all gardening, all the time. Any free time I have, I'm outside. With the nonstop rain we've been having recently, I have been trapped inside so I started a new mystery cross-stitch project as my go-to craft thing to do.

But I bought book of small knit/crochet hat projects. Hats. For Cats. 

I started with the crocheted Little Lion pattern. I like that all the crocheted patterns are charted in the book- I rarely see that outside of Japanese crochet books. I whipped up the base in an evening. I needed a cat to put it on, of course. And I found Penny, relaxed in bed, sleeping.

I gently put it on and tied it shut under her chin. She started purring and kept on dozing.

She never even opened her eyes all the way. She probably thinks it was all a bad dream. At this point, the base just looks like one of the old, leather football helmets.

The next evening I added two rows of loops using soft faux-fur, to complete the lion's mane look. I popped it onto Penny, who was awake and walking around. She didn't seem to mind and continued walking around but Santana had a big problem with it. Penny looked unfamiliar and Santana was following her, hissing. Penny was like, "What? It's me." Santana was like, "Who are you? I don't know you. I HATE YOU, STRANGER." I slipped the hat off Penny and Santana calmed down immediately.

I brought Murderface upstairs for nightly treats in bed. I put the hat on him. He's super chill and a good sport about everything.

A view looking down on that hat:

Penny's reaction to Murderface in the hat is the funniest.

Here's the hat, flat, not on a cat:

There is a banana hat that I want to make for Santana but she didn't even like me resting this hat on her head (forget about tying it under her chin and wearing the actual thing around). Her head may be a no-hat zone. Ever.