Ella & Audrey's Frozen-inspired hats

My friend, Melissa, and I are kindred spirits who love handmade items.  Another thing we share in common is that we both have blond four-year-old daughters (though hers is soon to turn 5 this month!) who are completely enamored with the Disney movie, Frozen.  So when Melissa came to me and asked if I might be able to crochet some Elsa & Anna hats for her daughter, I jumped at the chance!  Here's the Elsa hat, modeled by Melissa's daughter, Ella:

The hat looks great with the Elsa dress!  Ella looks born to be royalty.  Also, when Sonia saw these pictures, her eyes almost bugged out of her head and she is now reminding me daily that she would LOVE an Elsa dress for her birthday.  She's currently cobbling her own together out of a turquoise tutu, a blue felt super hero cape, and a sequin tiara I bought for her out of the dollar bin at Jo-Ann Fabric.

Melissa & I looked at some finished-product listings for Frozen-inspired hats on Etsy to get inspiration, and I headed off to Jo-Ann Fabrics to check out the yarn possibilities.  When I saw Premier Yarns Serenity Chunky Sequins yarn in a color called "Snow Crystals", I almost fell over.  It was perfect for an Elsa hat!  It is a gorgeous white yarn with silver sequins woven throughout.  Too bad sparsely-placed sequins don't show up in pictures; you'll just have to take my word for is that this yarn is simply awesome and perfect.

I used a really nice free pattern, Basic Bulky HDC Beanie, from the Charmed by Ewe blog.  It worked perfectly with the size 5 yarns that I used for both hats.  

Even Elsa the Snow Queen needs to take a rest sometimes.

Ella loves to play Elsa & Anna with her little sister, Audrey.  But the day that Melissa took this picture, Audrey was NOT in the mood to pose as Anna.

Luckily, Audrey decided posing wasn't all that bad later in the day.  The Anna hat was crocheted with size 5 Lion Brand Wool-Ease Chunky yarn in the color "Spice".

I made the braids an appropriate length for Ella to wear the hat, so the braids are hanging a bit long on her one-year-old sister!  Oh well, she still looks super-fabulous.

We decided that the Anna hat needed some flowers (made with Red Heart Super Saver yarn) on it as a counterpoint to the Elsa hat's wintry theme.  The cute little flowers at the bottom of the braids aren't very visible in these pictures, but one is pink and one is purple.  I free-handed the flowers.

The sisters from Arendelle! (Ella stuck her Elsa tiara on the hat for this picture....  Perfect!!)

To jazz up the Elsa hat a bit, I used some cotton yarn to crochet white and turquoise snowflakes (using this fantastic free pattern).  Then, I sewed the snowflakes and the big pink flower (from the Anna hat) onto barrettes so that they could be taken on and off the hats as the girls desired.  Or, they could wear the snowflakes and flower in their hair!

Happy early birthday, Miss Ella!  May you and Audrey spend many happy hours pretending to be Elsa the Snow Queen and her plucky little sister, Anna.  Thanks for the pictures, Melissa!!