DIY Knit Beard Hat Pattern

Knit Beard Hat Pattern

Hi guys, so today I’m super excited to share my very first knitting pattern with you all!

I was a pretty avid knitter in high school and college, but involuntarily took a break from it while I was focusing on acting in LA. One of the reasons I started this blog was to share my progress in improving new skills, as well as old skills that got pushed aside.  I recently started knitting again because I wanted to make a beard hat for my boyfriend Daniel.

I had a lot of trouble finding a knit beard pattern I liked, especially a free one. I found a pattern that was pretty close to what I wanted, but when I tried it out, I couldn’t get some of the rows to turn out correctly. I adapted it in a way that made more sense to me, and decided to write out the pattern for anyone looking for more beard hat options! Please bear in mind though – this is the first pattern I’ve written out, so it may be a little rough around the edges.

Here’s what you need:

  • Size 8 (5 mm) needles
  • Worsted weight wool, acrylic, or blend yarn in a natural color (I used a dark brown)
  • Needle for weaving in ends

Gauge:  16 stitches and 26 rows = 4 inches in moss stitch

Here’s what you do:

Cast on 55 stitches.

Cast on 55 Stitches

Rows 1-2:  Moss stitch.  For those unfamiliar, to create a moss stitch you knit the purls and purl the knits.  You will be using moss stitch for the entire pattern.

Work Rows 1 & 2 in Moss Stitch

Row 3:  K20, BO15, and then continue the row and K20.  You are creating the mouth opening.

Row 3:  Bind Off 15 Stitches

Row 4:  Knit 20, CO15…

Row 4:  Cast On 15 Stitches

Turn work to the right side…

Turn Knitting to Right Side After Cast On of 15 Stitches

And then knit the rest of Row 4.

Row 4:  Cast On 15 Stitches & Continue Knitting

Here’s what the finished mouth opening will look like.

Completed Mouth Opening for Knit Beard Hat

Row 5-10:  Continue moss stitch until the beard just reaches the bottom of your chin.  It was row 10 for me!

Now you will start your decreases to shape the bottom of the beard.

Row 11:  BO7, knit the rest of the row (48 st. remaining).

Row 12:  BO7, knit the rest of the row (41 st. remaining).

Rows 11 & 12:  Bind Off 7 Stitches

Decrease using the following pattern.  You will have 25 st. remaining

Rows 13-16:  K2tog, knit the rest of the row.

Rows 17-20:  K2tog, K2tog, knit the rest of the row.

Rows 21-24:  K2tog, knit the rest of the row.

Bind Off Remaining Stitches of Knit Beard

Bind off the remaining 25 stitches and weave in ends.

Knit Beard with Button FastenersI chose to fasten buttons on each end of the beard, and then (with my uncrafty ways) pulled each button through a stitch on the hat I made. Very technical, I know. You could certainly create button holes in the hat you’re using, I chose not to in case Daniel wanted to wear it without the beard.

You can use any technique you’d like to attach the beard to your hat – elastic, sew it on directly, buttons, etc. Whatever works for you!

Daniel in His Knit Beard HatDaniel loved his finished beard hat!  It’s incredibly warm and perfect for cold winter days!

I hope this knit beard hat pattern comes in handy for anyone looking!  Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions!

Bonus! Check out the hat pattern I used, and my pattern for the color blocking below!

Simple and Easy Knit Hat PatternI used this simple hat pattern for the hat pictured here.  I followed the pattern for the medium size pretty much exact, except I continued the K1, P1 ribbing until it reached 1 1/2″.

As you can see, I also did some color blocking. In case you like it, here’s what I did:

Tan:  2 rows.

Light green:  5 rows.

Tan: 2 rows.

It was a really easy and fast pattern – great for a beginner! Happy knitting!


52 Reasons Why I Love You DIY

Front Cover for 52 Reasons I Love You DIY

Valentine’s Day is almost here, and I know a lot of you out there are probably searching for gifts for your boyfriend/husband or girlfriend/wife.  I always say this, but I think homemade gifts are such a wonderful way to express your love for someone.  So much thought, energy, and love goes into the gift that that’s almost a gift on its own!

I had come across the 52 Reasons Why I Love You DIY a while ago, and knew I wanted to make it at some point for a special occasion.  After pinning it, I was a little intimidated by the DIY… I’m what I like to call an “uncrafty crafter.”  This project looked slightly beyond my capabilities, so I passed on it more than a few times.

Finally, last year for Valentine’s Day I decided to take on the challenge and make it for Daniel.  This DIY is all over Pinterest and everyone has their own take on it.  After looking at a bunch of examples, I knew how I was going personalize it for Daniel and myself.  And now I’d like to share it with you all, so here’s my DIY of the 52 Reasons Why I Love You gift! Read more »


Spinach and Prosciutto Lasagna and Other Christmas Recipes

Before Christmas, I shared with you all a few recipes I intended to make for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  As promised, I now want to share how they all turned out!

You may remember that the main event was a Spinach and Prosciutto Lasagna from Martha Stewart.  After reading the reviews, I omitted quite a few things and added others.  I also made mine a lot bigger since the original only made 4 servings.  Not nearly enough leftovers for the amount of work, I think!

Here’s what you need:

  • 2 (10 oz.) packages of spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  • 16 oz. ricotta cheese
  • 4 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto, diced
  • Lasagna noodles
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 1/2 jars of tomato sauce
  • 1/2 white onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 9 button mushrooms, sliced
  • 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
  • 1 green bell pepper (optional)
  • 3/4 red bell pepper (optional)
  • 3/4 yellow bell pepper (optional)

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Over medium high heat, saute your onion and mushrooms in olive oil for 3-4 minutes.  Add your spices and saute another minute or so.  You don’t need to cook the veggies too long, since they will finish cooking in the oven.  Set aside to cool slightly.

Sauteed Vegetables for Lasagna

Lasagna Spinach and Mushroom FillingIn a medium bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, garlic, and cooled veggies.  Set aside.  Also in a medium bowl, thoroughly mix your diced prosciutto with your tomato sauce.  Set aside.  You can use any sauce you’d like, we combined a four cheese sauce and a basil marinara, both from Trader Joes.

In a 9×13 casserole dish, spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan.  Then place a layer of noodles on top.  I used no boil noodles because that’s all Trader Joes had, but either will do!  If you do use no boil noodles, I highly suggest soaking them in hot water for 5-10 minutes before working with them.  This will make them more pliable, and help to ensure they will cook all the way through.

Evenly crumble 1/3 of the spinach and ricotta mixture on top of your noodles, and then spread 1/4 of the remaining sauce.  Repeat noodles, mixture, sauce two more times.  Place one more layer of noodles on top, the last 1/4 of your sauce, and then top with shredded mozzarella.

Assembling Lasagna Layers

Bell Pepper Christmas TreeNow, if you did see my previous Christmas recipe post or just went to my Pinterest board, you know I planned to create a Christmas tree topper for my lasagna.  That’s where those optional bell peppers come in!  You’ll want to slice the green peppers, dice and create a tree stump from the red pepper, and dice and create a star from the yellow pepper.  I thought it was pretty awesome looking, what do you think?

With or without the topper, bake uncovered until brown, about 35-40 minutes.  Then let stand 5 minutes before serving and enjoy!  My recipe will make about 12 servings, and Daniel said it was the best lasagna he’s ever eaten!

Here are a few pictures of our tasty lasagna and our Christmas Eve!

Christmas Lasagna

We served our lasagna with garlic bread and salad, and plenty of wine, of course!

Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve Table Setting

Daniel and Michele on Christmas Eve

For dessert, as I suspected, we were too tired to make this peppermint bark cheesecake.  So sadly I can’t tell you if it was delicious or a fail, BUT I can tell you that the frozen cheesecake sampler from Trader Joes is worth a try!  It comes with 2 slices of 3 different kinds of cheesecake, and all you have to do is thaw it for an hour on the counter.  A great find if you want something easy!

Cranberry Mimosas

We did make breakfast and mimosas for Christmas morning though!  We made cranberry mimosas, and they were pretty tasty, although the orange juice really overpowered the cranberry.  I think next time we make them I’ll fill the glass with mostly cranberry juice and add just a splash of orange.

We had a few unused glasses already rimmed with green sugar from our holiday party, and Daniel had the brilliant idea to use them that morning.  I LOVE how festive they look!

We also made baked french toast and baked bacon!

Christmas Day Breakfast

I followed this french toast recipe exactly, and it turned out beautifully!  The top is the perfect french toast consistency, and the bottom has a delicious buttery brown sugar sauce – it didn’t even need syrup!  This was the first time I had ever baked bacon in the oven, while I wouldn’t say it made the clean up any quicker, it did produce an entire pan of perfectly crisp bacon.  So I definitely think I will be cooking it in the oven from now on!

Family on Christmas MorningWell, it’s always a little sad to see Christmas come and go.  It was a very relaxing and quiet Christmas with my best friend and love, and all around favorite person in the world.  It will be a Christmas that I will cherish forever!


DIY T Shirt Frame Christmas Gift

DIY T Shirt Artwork

A few years ago, I was searching for Christmas gifts for Daniel, and I stumbled upon t shirt frames on Urban Outfitters’ website.  Daniel has quite the collection of graphic tees, like two stuffed drawers worth.  It just so happened that that very year he decided to weed out some of his shirts.

I noticed that a lot of the shirts he was going to get rid of he still really liked, but they had shrunk or otherwise become unwearable.  Well, you can imagine I was pretty excited!  This was the perfect gift to keep his favorite t shirts AND have really awesome artwork!  The only problem was that the t shirt frames at Urban Outfitters had really bad reviews.  In fact, any “t shirt” frame I found had poor ratings.

I was still determined to get this gift, and some of the reviews had mentioned the frames were just shadow boxes.  With that knowledge, I knew I could easily do this DIY t shirt frame Christmas gift!  I found great frames on Amazon – highly rated and not too expensive.  When they arrived, I was more than pleased!  They are very well made and look expensive.

Here’s what you need:

  • 4 black shadow box frames
  • 4 graphic t shirts
  • A pencil
  • Scissors

Here’s what you do:

T Shirt for DIY ArtworkThe frames come in cardboard boxes, so I recycled and used them to make the framework!  I simply used the glass from the frame as a template, and traced it onto the cardboard with a pencil.  I then cut it out with scissors, although you could also use an exacto knife for even quicker results.

I then positioned the cardboard over the part of the t shirt I wanted visible.

Tightly fold the shirt around the cardboard square.  You could secure the shirt with safety pins or masking tape, but I didn’t find that necessary.

Folded T Shirt for DIY Artwork

Place the folded shirt into the frame and replace the backing.  Not sure if you can tell in the picture, but the frames each come with four push pins.  I decided to leave them on, my reasoning was that it would provide more support for the folded t shirt.

T Shirt in Shadow Box

Repeat steps for each frame, and voila!

DIY Christmas Gift

DIY T Shirt Frame Artwork

Daniel Unwrapping T Shirt Frame ArtworkI LOVE how these turned out.  I chose to do four frames because I like how they looked together.  You could certainly do as many or as little as you want.  This was such a great gift for my creative, t shirt loving guy!  I know he was wondering why I wanted to keep his old shirts, I think he was pretty happy with the results!  🙂