Red Monster Beanie with tail

I've been planning to make more of these monster beanies for the coming winter, and here is one I finished on the Easter weekend. This is the second one I've made, the first monster beanie I made was finished in January. Quite a few people have asked me to make some for them, but I'm now thinking I probably won't manage to get them all finished in time!

red wonky-eyed monster beanie

For this beanie, I used the luxury wool from the Bendigo Mill and a 4mm hook. This beanie fits a baby up to the age of 12 months, as its a tight fit on my 16 month old son. I was fairly happy with the beanie except for the seam at the back. This flaw was really bugging me as it was an otherwise perfect beanie, so I added a scaled ridge along the seam. I figured this would be fine for a monster beanie, and it worked out quite well!

my first monster beanie tail

After finishing the beanie, I simply work my way back up the seam with these scales. I start with sk 1 (3 dc 2 ch 3 dc) sc, repeated 5 times for this small beanie. Then the 2nd last scale is a bit smaller (3 hdc 2 ch 3hdc) sl st, and the last scale is the smallest (2 hdc 2 ch 2 hdc) sl st. I worked out a better way to attach the eyes too. I simply added them with sl st along the edge, which I think makes a neater finish. I have to cut the white wool and thread it through the beanie to be able to do that. I make the cut end about 8 times the diameter of the 2 round white part of the eye so there is enough yarn to edge the eye onto the beanie. Finally, the white teeth are similar to the scales sk 1 (2 dc 2 ch 2 dc) sl st, repeated. I tried doing 6 teeth, but in the end I decided it definitely looks better with just the 4 teeth!

wonky eyes and goofy teeth

I left this beanie with my mother-in-law, whom we stayed with over Easter, to give to one of her other grandchildren. I hope it fits and they really like it! Now onto the next beanie, which shall be ... purple!!!