I decided to make some dog hats for a couple of boys I know.  I chose Aran wool as the thickness I wanted to knit them in.

I measured a the boys heads, wow there is such a difference in the size of boys heads!  For the younger boy I put ear flaps on with a button to keep the ear flaps fastened down and to stop the hat coming off.

Once again I made a sample square of 20 sts, knitted in stocking stitch, to see how many stitches I needed to cast on.  I wanted my dog face to have a patch over one eye and a patch on the other side of its face.

I charted the dog face out on squared paper.

I thought for the nose I would run the cream wool across the back of the black wool, this can thicken the area you run the second colour behind, that would add to the dog’s nose thickness.

I decided to use different stands of cream and brown for the patches and just cross the colours over where they change.  The photograph shows both these methods.

Completed cream and brown knitted dog hat – still to be sewn up

To make the hat different I left it a square at the top.

Completed cream and brown knitted dog hat with pom pom ears

I sewed the seams up, over sewed black wool for the eyes and made 2 pom pom’s for the corners for the ears.  I made one pom pom brown and one pom pom half cream and half brown to follow the patch theme.

I have knitted 8 of these hats now in various sizes, with and without ear flaps.

If you purchase one of my dog hat patterns try and measure the head it is for!!  My head is only an inch smaller than a 3 year olds head I know, niether of us look like our heads are out of proportion.

The good thing about knitting is – they tend to be stretchy!!