Baby Hats and an Adorable Chicken Cosy!

I have a new grand-baby due to arrive in a couple months and I am very excited! The baby wouldn't cooperate for the ultrasound, the little darling kept turning on his/her side, facing her back and curling up to sleep despite the technicians best efforts to arouse the little one and discover the great mystery of it's gender. I mention this because I am really excited to start crocheting some of my first baby items but, I am uncertain about what colors of yarn to use. I dislike the unisex mint green color, that I have seen so overly used by others in the past for this very same reason. 

A friend, who's a professional photographer, asked if I would crochet a few baby hats to be used as props in baby photo's for her. I was actually very apprehensive about making them for her with having never made baby hats before. I didn't want to accept a commissioned job without being certain about my own abilities. This little moral dilemma has held me back before on accepting requests to make items in the past for others. I solved my problem this time by offering to make them for free for her while considering this the perfect opportunity for some practice in skill and self-awareness building for myself. We can all be our worst critics and when I'm striving towards perfection for others I have a tendency to be too harsh on my own abilities therefore, completely taking the fun out of what I consider to be an enjoyable outlet. 

Shown above is a picture of the first baby hats I have made, that I am now really excited to make more of. My six year old grand-daughter, Jade, seen this picture yesterday and called me all excited requesting that I needed to make these hats in duplicate for her soon to be brother or sister and herself. Leave it to my Jade to make me feel like Pro!

The patterns for theses hats can be found here for free:

Long Tailed Baby Elf Hat by Carrie Piper:

http://www.oodles-4-noodles.com/2011/03/long-tailed-baby-elf-hat-tutorial.html

Newborn Zebra Hat by Gwen Duhart:

http://adorablyhooked.blogspot.com/2012/03/newborn-zebra-hat-free-pattern.html

I also tried out this adorable Chicken Cosy Pattern and was really pleased with the outcome.

The free pattern for this egg cosy can be found at:

Eggstremely Cosy Set by Corinne Frieden

http://piecesofmylife-victoriag.blogspot.com/2009/04/well-after-having-spent-morning-trying.html