2024-2025

I started crocheting in 2022 because I had never worked with yarn before and I wanted to demystify it for myself.

I picked up a set of hooks that came with instructions on how to do a chain stitch, and I became hooked…

I have never used a crochet pattern and have likened it to 3D-Printing, where the layers of stitches are just like the layers of filament in a print. This has really shaped how I think about crocheting, as when I am thinking about how I want to make something I imagine it growing layer by layer like rows of filament in a print. To this day, I have never used a crochet pattern!

But why cat hats? In short, I love cats. In long, I have a friend who is obsessed with crocodiles and has a cat named Kroco. One day I was at their place and thought “Hmm, I wonder if…”

Scroll down below the gallery to see my process for each hat!

Iteration 1

For the first iteration of this project, I tried to make a base structure that would go onto the head of the cat and then to build out the snout of the crocodile from that structure. 

It resulted in a shape that I liked quite a lot while laying down on a surface but when put on my cat as a model, it flopped down and did not hold the snout shape at all.

Iteration 2

For the second iteration, I focused on trying to get the snout to hold it’s shape and not flop down as much by making more of a tightened bubble at the end of the snout than a wide and flat shape.

While this did result in the shape being held more, it was not very aesthetically pleasing and did not look like a crocodile much (it was too bubbly, go figure).

Iteration 3

For the third iteration of the project, I tried to get a balance of the tight structure and something closer to the shape of the crocodile head. 

While this was closer, and was holding it’s shape relatively well it still did not have a shape that looked like a crocodile quite as much as the first iteration.

Final Iteration

I kept my first iteration throughout all of this and so for the final version I used it as a guide to try to make sure that the original shape (closest to an actual crocodile head was maintained).

Another thing I had learned while making the prototypes was that the band I had been putting in often contorted in a way that made it too small to fit on the head of the cat, so I removed this from the design in this iteration, by sewing one end under the cardboard section of the cap. (See the pins in the image above)

To create the insert for the “baseball cap” portion I used cardboard from the recycle to make the shape of the snout and sewed it onto the crochet.

Featured here is also the box that I made as packaging for it, which again, I have lost the majority of the documentation for but there is some. If you would like to see that documentation, see the button below:

When looking at the reference images, I noticed that the angler fish had a distinctive tapered body and tail in the back, and in some images a very distinctive protrusion to the lower jaw.

To create the distinctive shape in the back I started making the structure by creating essentially a flat donut that I then folded like a taco. One side of this taco was able to be pinched with a single stitch to create the back fin and then the stitch was later increased to create the body, but before this I set the size of the mouth to guide the size of everything else.

The idea was to make it like a helmet or balaclava as opposed to a hat, so I made the opening pretty large to make sure that the face of the cat could fit comfortably in the gap.

I built out the distinctive chin shape first and then built out the shape of the gap. From there, I built out some of the forehead before closing off the top of the scalp and body in a circular pattern.

I added teeth to the mouth cut from the same thick felt as used in the crocodile project, and embroidered on some eyes in a bright blue yarn to contrast the bright orange of the base.
I love making tiny felt teeth!

Then I worked on the iconic antenna at the top of the head. I thought about trying to do it entirely out of crochet, however because I was working with really thick yarn and needed the antenna to be relatively thin, I decided to take a lesson from my previous project and create a reinforcement piece out of a pipe cleaner. 

I stitched the pipe cleaner in with the yarn creating a bit of a mound at the base. From there, I tightly wrapped the yarn around and up the pipe cleaner and then back down, before tightly stitching it back into the base to create enough tension to hold the wrappings in place.