If you take a peek at my shop, you may notice I have a little woodland animal theme obsession, but in a good way! Recently I have created a fawn bonnet, and my newest shop addition is none other than a skunk bonnet. I guess you could say that I have had some firsthand inspiration for this little hat. Last week when Jordon was traveling for work, I was up late cleaning up from our day. I ran a bag of trash out to the bin, and thank goodness I saw a little white stripe out of the corner of my eye before I opened the trash bin lid and slammed it shut. All I can say is what an adrenaline rush! He was about 10 feet off the side of our driveway, which was way too close for comfort. I slowly and quietly as possible set the bag down in the driveway and backed away slowly. I think I was saying a little prayer this little guy wouldn’t spray until I got safely back inside the house…whew I made it! I think the only thing that saved me was he was just a little guy. We saw him again the following night too. Needless to say, I don’t water flowers or sit on the back porch after dark right now. Who knew living in town would give me so much inspiration for my Etsy shop creations!

This little bonnet is knit with an alpaca/mohair blend yarn. The ears are crocheted for added structure, so they stand up, and of course the true-tale skunk stripe is made by attaching white faux fur! I know it’s a skunk, but I can’t get over how cute this one is. This may be my favorite bonnet to date! It is available in newborn, sitter, and walker sizes in my shop.

Newborn skunk ears pattern:

Make 4 (2 outer and 2 inner ears)

Ch6 using dk weight yarn and size G crochet hook

hdc into 1st ch from hook and across (5 hdc); ch1, turn

hdc2tog, hdc, hdctog; ch1, turn

hdc3tog, ch1; break yarn and finish off inner ears only. Outer ears follow instructions below.

The 2 ears that are considered the inner ears I go ahead and sew in all ends. I leave an 8″ tail when I start the outer ears, which will allow  enough yarn to sew the ears to the bonnet.

After I crochet the outer ears and finish the last row, I slip stitch around the outside with both inner and outer ears held together. This provides quite a bit of structure so these little ears will stand up.

I hope you enjoy this simple little crocheted pattern. I plan to make this the first of many.