Who here is familiar with Courage the Cowardly Dog? I was not, so when my aunt asked me if I could make a Courage hat, I was a little unsure. My first instinct was to check Ravelry for patterns, and I found one, but we weren’t crazy about all of it. My aunt and I shared a few photos back and forth and I said I would do my best to replicate the image of Courage she liked the best. There was a lot of improvisation and modification going on! For fun, I decided to document each step of the process, so non-crafters could see what goes into making a detailed character hat.The basic beanie is the easiest part. It takes maybe an hour, 90 minutes tops.Now it’s time to start adding little bits. Each piece only takes a short time to make, but there’s a lot of them! I start with eyeballs.The black centers of the eyes are simple.A nice brown triangle noseNow some pink half-circles for Courage’s…what are those? Jowls?Brown eyebrowsDarker pink eyelidsBrown ears. They need to be stiff enough to stand up. Now I have all the pieces laid out, and it’s time to weave in all the extra ends and sew it all together. This is the most time-consuming part, since I work hard to make sure the placement is correct and everything is sewn securely. Each piece is sewn on individually.The final product. I may not be familiar with Courage but I sure like my version of him.I think I did a pretty good job of replicating the picture my aunt sent. What do you think? Her friend was pleased, and so was the daughter who ended up stealing the hat!