I think it’s official, I have a serious obsession with animal hats!!!  LOL no really, it just seems that now since I have figured out how to make them I see all these other ideas that I for one reason or another was not able to find when I was looking for the info.

These hats along with the Sock Monkey Hat and the Owl Hat are top candidates for my Fav’s.  These are other people’s patterns that I love, these are not my patterns.

Cute Monkey Hat Pattern: This is a single crochet hat for a 6-12 month baby (but remember, it’s easy to make different sizes).  I love how she has done the ears so they curl in.  The pattern is here or you can just click on the picture.

Easy animal hat pattern that uses single crochet

Minnie Mouse Hat: When Ally started climbing out of her crib and needed her first ‘big girl’ bed I redecorated her entire room in Minnie Mouse.  If I had been into crochet at that time she would have been wearing these hats and most likely would have had them in a vast array of bow colors so they would match any outfit.

Easy double crochet pattern - perfect for a beginner

This pattern uses double crochet.  This is probably the most comprehensive crochet pattern I have seen, it is more like a tutorial making it an excellent find for a newer crocheter. And the ears—Oh check out the ears.  I have spent so much time trying to figure out how to make semi circles for bear ears so they would lay flatter when sewn to the hat.  Her method is perfect.  The pattern is here or you can just click on the pic of the mouse hat above.

UPDATE :  It was brought to my attention that the link above for the Minnie inspired hat no longer works.  This was a free download from the pattern site linked but the pattern was apparently removed.   Because this was another person’s pattern that I was linking to to the best of my knowledge there is no copy of it available on the Internet.  There is however, a very similar pattern on Ravelry here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mickey–minnie-mouse-inspired-hat-pattern

UPDATED: FEB 20, 2012 Over the weekend I crocheted a hat  using the Minnie Mouse Inspired Hat pattern linked above.  Here is how it turned out

Click on the picture to see the pattern I used or simply crochet a beanie and add round ears and a bow

It is a free pattern on Ravelry and the designer has a very helpful video showing how to you sew embellishments, like round ears, onto an animal hat and avoid the ears flopping.  Her pattern is here:  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mickey–minnie-mouse-inspired-hat-pattern