Recently I made these fleece hats for us to take a family photo in this year.  The hat idea came from one of my twin sons when I made his Halloween costume.  He was Toonlink – a video game character -and needed this long pointy hat.   His twin brother liked it so well he wanted one in his favorite color yellow.  I decided it would be fun to make all 5 of us one each in a different color for a photo.   Well, the idea was all good but getting 3 teenage boys to wear them and have their photo taken was another issue.  So, we just took a family photo without the hats.  Below is me wearing my hat.

When I went to Joann Fabrics to buy the fleece I got carried away – as I usually do when buying fabric – and bought extra with some other ideas in mind.  So I got busy with my one idea and here is the result – a fleece scarf with yarn ruffle trim.

I cut the fleece approximately 11 in. wide by the width of the fabric.  I then serged the edges using a variegated blue thread in the upper looper.  I crocheted this big loopy ruffle and then sewed it onto the fleece scarf after serging the edges.  This yarn was just some I had leftover from another project I made in the past.  It only took about 75 yards of yarn for both ruffles.

After making my above “sample” version and seeing that it turned out I decided to use this dark green fleece and make a couple of gift items.  I have a lot of family up in Michigan, where I am from, and they are all MSU fans.  I decided since MSU is going to the Rose Bowl this year this would make a fun gift.

This scarf I decided to add a pocket on each side so you can have a place to keep your hands warm or hold  your cellphone, ipod, etc.  The ruffle was then attached to the lower part of the scarf.  This particular ruffle was crocheted using 2 colors of yarn held together.  I really like how it turned out.

I also made another version of a hat for a gift.  It was super fast and easy.  I used my pointy hat basic pattern and shortened it and made a curved top then just serged the curved edges and turned up the lower edge and used a zigzag stitch for a small hem with white thread so it would be in MSU colors.  My son is modeling it in the below photos.

I still have extra fleece to use up and have another idea for a scarf.  I am hoping when the Christmas rush calms down I can get it done and post it on my blog before the New Year gets here.

I hope everyone is having a nice holiday season.  I have been a bit overwhelmed with completing my shopping and getting all my packages mailed out.  I feel a little better now that I got the last of the gifts mailed yesterday.  I am hoping they get there by Christmas.