A Cat in the Hat Hat and Tie

My cousin-in-laws are expecting their first baby!  When I found out that my MIL was planning a Dr. Seuss themed baby shower for the mama-to-be I knew that I had the perfect baby hat to make them.  (She always loves the items that I create and is totally knit-worthy, or in this case crochet-worthy.)  I wanted to make this baby the Cat in the Hat Set - a crochet hat and bow tie in newborn size.

Since this was the requested shower theme I have no idea if they are going to decorate the nursery on this theme or not, but either way I think the parents will love the set.  Plus when the baby grows out of them they will look really cute on a stuffed animal, so there is a function on them after the newborn stage, too.   (Or at least this is what I'm telling myself!)

I am knitting the hat in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes yarn in Red and White with a size H hook.  The pattern calls for an I hook but I liked the gauge from the owl newborn hats that I know fit Lucky as a newborn.

So I am mostly self taught when it comes to crochet, and I have a question... am I doing something wrong?  The beginning of my rows when I am not doing a spiral go off at an angle.  Is this the way it is supposed to happen?

The ruler is in the photo to help show where the diagonal.  

I finished up the hat in an afternoon.  I love a fast little project, especially when it is helping me use up some yarn from my stash!  I will wait until the morning to start the bow tie, although that also looks like a simple project.  

I didn't worry too much about counting rows for the bow tie prop.  I'm glad that there is no neck piece because this really is just a photo prop and the parents can rig something up if they want to for when the baby is older (or to secure it to a stuffed animal.)  

I learned something cool as I was making these pieces.  I don't mind short crochet pieces with a lot of back and forths.  This is much easier to do than a 3 stitch wide knit flat piece for some reason.  (Although I would knit backwards for something like that.)   

In the end I used 33 g (73 yards) of red yarn and 18 g (40 yards) of white yarn.  Only 7 g of the red were needed to create the bow.  I really like the natural curl in the tie that happened from the crochet fabric.  I could have blocked it if I wanted to remove it, but I think that the curl brings movement to the piece, and we know that the Cat in the Hat is a creature of movement!  

This is a cute and fun little set.  I hope that the mama- and dada-to-be send me some cute pictures of my new cousin-in-law-once-removed (aka Lucky's second cousin) in the set.