Blue Bonnet Bell Cloche

I am not sure if this is obvious from previous posts, but generally I get my inspiration from when I go shopping. Half the time I look at clothes, I think to myself or say to Iron Martin, "why would I spend $50 on that when I can make it?" And of course, the cost of the yarn itself is usually twice that, and it takes 10 hours to make something without a pattern when I could have bought it in 5 minutes. Those arguments aside, here was the inspiration for the Blue Bonnet Bell Cloche, an adorable $42 hat at Anthropologie:

I absolutely loved this hat, and thought it was so adorable on; but I could not bring myself to buy yet another grey hat from Anthropologie, since I already have two, especially for $42. Eh, maybe I will still buy it...

I started this hat as a beanie, which normally has increases of hdc in every row for the back of the head and then levels off. Once I was done making the normal beanie, I started with increases of hdc in exactly the same way as I left off. I didn't want it to look like a bucket hat so I only made a few that went entirely around and then worked it like a big brim.I am loving sea foam colors lately so I bought a couple skeins. I kept insisting that I never mix colors, and it was going to be entirely sea foam. Once I got to the end of the beanie, I realized my sea foam wasn't going to make it so I added in some navy blue (left over from the first bell cloche I tried to make!). I added a little flower applique to the band, which I think makes it totally adorable. Maybe I'll add some better pictures later since I look terrible in these, and I think it makes the hat less cute by association. I wear it every day!