Funky Monkey Free pattern

My 4 year old son LOVES red. He loves anything red. He has even changed his name from Ben to Lightning McQueen, because McQueen is red. He is a ball of energy and fun, and so I designed this hat with him as my inspiration. This is just the basic sock monkey pattern with a few variations. The sock monkey hat can be found on this blog or by clicking here. Everything is done the same up to the first round of row 7. Then I alternated rows of sc in red and dc in black. (After row 6 which is 2 rows of sc in red) There is a total of 5 rows of black dc with 4 rows of red sc in between. I gave him crazy eyes because plain black buttons didn't show up on the black yarn very well.
The black pupil is the same as the first round as I use to make the ears, and then I did 2 sl st in each st around with white.

To do the faux-hawk, I used 6 strands of yarn (2 of each color) and looped them around each dc post of the crown of the hat. I left them longer than I needed then I trimmed them all to the same length. They do not stand up if they are too long, so play around with the length.

I really hope my variations make sense to read, because the sky is the limit with color combos you could do with this crazy monkey!! have fun, and I have started a new album on my facebook page called inspirations. I would love to see any other variations of this guy or any other creations you have on there!
Happy crocheting!

For a list of crochet stitches and how to make them go here.

**You may use this pattern to sell items, but I request that a link or credit be given back to this site** This is a ©Knotty Knotty Crochet pattern, and may not under any circumstances be sold in whole or in part. Duplication is by written permission only.