The Pussy Hat that Turned into A Pussy Snood

During my last trip to Seattle, my friend, A asked me if I could knit her a Pussy Hat for her dog, Sammy.  I said sure (after all, how hard could it be?  It's supposed to be a 2-hour hat for a person, it should be quicker for a small-ish dog, right?).  Plus, if anyone knows A, she doesn't ask for things very often.  So, I was happy to oblige her request. :)

Before I left Seattle, A & V offered to take me yarn shopping; I said I wanted to go to Wal-Mart to see what colour pink she wanted so I could find something close to it at home.  Well, we went to Serial Knitters and she fell in love with this:

She picked it up, declared this was the color, bought it and handed it to me!  All in one fell swoop! :P  I was surprised she picked this color but happy that she found something she loved! :)  

After looking at the skein she purchased, I said, "Ya know ... that's a lot of yarn ... I'm going to have quite a bit of leftover yarn ... Do you want a matching hat?" ;)  And, A said, "Yes!" ;P

So, when I returned home, A sent me the measurements of her head (23.25") as well as Sammy's (13" in circumference & 3" tall to account for his ears) and it was off to the races!  I wanted to finish (or get to close to finishing the hats) before my next trip to Seattle (which was sooner rather than later due to a workshop I needed to attend for work).

Here's how it went:
I read the instructions and then decided to go onto Ravelry to see what other Pussy Hats looked like (I simply couldn't figure out the ears portion).  Then, I found this pattern and I started to see the light! :P  I did end up using the original pattern I found since it was designed to be knitted in the round (my favorite way of knitting - not much seaming, Ma! :P) and tweaked it a little bit with the other pattern I found.   Here's what I did:

• Casted on 110 sts for A using my Denise needles 5mm (US 8) & 60 sts for Sammy using my Denise needles 4mm (US 6)
• Ribbed 10 rows for A (for 4 cm (1.5 in)) & 10 rows for Sammy (for 3 cm (1 3/8 in))
• Finished off the hat with 53 rows for A (for 19.5 cm (7.5 in)) & 2 rows for Sammy using my Denise needles 4mm (US 6) then switched to a 4.5mm (US 7) needle for 13 additional rows (for 4.5 cm (1.5 in))
• Lastly, I used my Denise crochet hook to bind off A's hat (I didn't bind off Sammy's hat because I wanted to be sure it fit first).

A's turned out perfect! ❤️  Sammy's hat , however, didn't turn out so well because it kept popping off his head. 😥   Upon seeing that, I realized that since Sammy didn't have a forehead to "hold down" the hat, it wasn't going to work.  So, I ripped it out and started again.  I decided that I was going to make Sammy a Pussy Snood since I thought that if it went around his neck/torso area, it would "hold on" better.  Here's how I made it up:

• Using my Denise US 7 needles, casted on 70 sts and join in the round.
• Did 4 rows of Seed st 
• Switched to Stockinette st for 16 rows
• Held 40 sts onto one side and on the other side (30 sts) continued in Stockinette st for 10 rows 
• To turn the "hat", I used the German short row method until there were 14 sts left
• Picked up 8 sts on each side and did 6 rows of Seed st
• Bind off in pattern.

For the ears (using the same needles as the snood), 

• Cast on 12 sts and join in the round.
• K
• K2tog, k4 (total of 5 sts on each side)
• K
• K2tog, k3 (total of 4 sts on each side)
• K
• K2tog, k2 (total of 3 sts on each side)
• K2tog (total of 2 sts on each side)
• Bind off using my Denise crochet hook, leaving a very long tail
• Used the very long tail to attach to the snood. 

I was very lucky that my gamble turned out.  Since I only had 3 days in Seattle with my muse, I was able to finish it off on my last day.

And here are my finished products:

In hind sight, I think I could've made Sammy's snood a bit longer in the head area so it would hold better whenever he shook his head.  Overall, I think he likes it as he didn't seem to mind wearing it. :P

Thank you, A for giving me yet another opportunity to try something different and new! :)  If it weren't for you, I don't think I'd ever think of making something as different as a Pussy Snood! :)