A co-worker of mine found out that I am a fiendish knitter and asked if I could make her a red hat with ear flaps to match her scarf and gloves. No real other description. I tried to pry out of her a color description similar to her gloves and scarf, but to no avail. She simply wanted a red hat with ear flaps.

I have made an ear flap hat once before, but it was plain and boring. I was tempted to scour the joys of my Japanese knitting stitch bible to find a cute, yet simple stitch to go with the ear flap hat I usually make, but I thought it would be fun to try something a bit different.

I came across the Gingerbread Icing Ear Flap Hat on Ravelry. It was the perfect ear flap hat with a simplistic repeat of cables and perfect for this little elderly woman that made this request.

The yarn is extremely soft and moves so well along the needles. I use the magic loop method when knitting hats, so I don't use a stitch marker, but I can see it snagging to a stitch when trying to pass the stitch marker between stitches. It does split very easily. I would not suggest using any type of wooden or bamboo needles with this yarn. One wash did cause it to shed. I did not attempt another, but I'm hoping the single wash did the shedding trick.



The pattern is so well written and easy to follower. I absolutely LOVE, and I stress, LOVE that the ear flaps are knitted first, left on the needle and then joined once the second one is complete. The ear flap pattern I made for myself is a knit the hat, pick up stitches, decrease to make ear flaps. Doing them first and then knitting the hat is so much easier! No stitches to pick up, worry of weird gaps or seams, it's PERFECT!

I was originally going to do an i-cord for the tie string, but opted for the pattern's instruction of just braiding strands together. I left a little tassel tuft at the end. It was adorable when my co-worker tried it on after handing it to her. I definitely plan on making a hat for myself or my daughter. They really are cute, and I'm sure would be even moreso with a pom attached.

One thing I definitely need to work on for my commissions is the wrapping. I'm thinking of making a custom logo for a cardstock wrap to go over all products. I do need to invest in a leather or cloth logo to attach to each of my pieces.



RANDOM BLOG CHANGE: Going forward I will be linking my Ravelry project page vs the direct link to the pattern. That project page will provide the pattern for you right there (if one was used). If it is my own personal pattern, the project page will have all steps listed.