Easy Earflap Hat

I had been trying for a while to work out how to use shortrows to fashion earflaps for this hat which I had in my head. Somehow I couldn't quite get my brain to come up with something that actually worked. I happened to be browsing through Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitters Almanac and I found her Maltese Fishermans Hat. Now this particular hat didn't do anything for me, as it's rather pointy, and I don't really like pointy, and the decreases spiral around the hat, making it even more pointy-looking. However, she has used shortrows to shape the earflaps and I realised that one needs to work them at the same time, before you work the body of the hat, joined to some of of neck shaping, rather than as part of the body of the hat (don't ask, it looks even worse than it sounds-which is why my prototypes never saw the light of day).

I made this hat to fit a 3-ish year old, or someone with a head circumference of 48-ish cm.

I used 8ply yarn and 4.5mm needles, and my gauge is 20st to 10cm. This hat is worked flat for the earflap portion, then is joined in the round to work to the crown. You will need a circular needle, with a long cable if you use the magic loop technique, or a 40cm cable and a set of dpns to finish the crown if you don't.

Yarn: any 8ply or DK

gauge: 20st to 10cm

needles:4.5mm

Instructions.

Cast on 56st.

Row 1: Sl1, kfb, K to last 2 st, kfb, K1.
Row 2: Sl1, K to end.

Rpt rows 1&2 5 times (66 st)

Work 4 rows K, slipping the first st of each row.

Work short rows as follows:

K15, turn, Sl1, K to end
K13, turn, Sl1, K to end
K11, turn, Sl1, K to end
K9, turn, Sl1, K to end
K7, turn, Sl1, K to end
K8, turn, Sl1, K to end
K10, turn, Sl1, K to end
K12, turn, Sl1, K to end
K14, turn, Sl1, K to end

Knit one row.

Repeat short rows as above.
Work 3 rows knit, slipping the first st of each row.


Next row: Sl1. K 25, kfb 4 times, K26, cast on 20. (90 st)

Join to work in the round.

Work in stst until the body of the hat measures 10 cm from the front cast-on stitches. You may work a garter st band over the front 20 cast on stitches for 3 or 4 rows to prevent rolling, or you may prefer the rolled look.

When the hat measures 10 cm at the front commence decreases as follows:
Place marker at centre back. Change to dpns when required, if not using magic loop method.

Round 1: *K7, k2tog* rpt from *to *
Round 2: K to end
Round 3: *K6, k2tog* rpt from *to *
Round 4: K to end
Round 5: *K5, k2tog* rpt from * to *
Round 6: K to end
Round 7: *K4, k2tog* rpt from * to *
Round 8: K to end
Round 9: *K3, k2tog* rpt from *to *
Round 10: K to end
Round 11: *K2, k2tog* rpt from * to *
Round 12: K to end
Round 13: *K1, K2tog rpt from * to *
Round 14: K to end
Round 15: K2tog to end

Cut yarn with a long tail. Use a darning needle to thread end of yarn through live stitches on needles. Slip stitches off needles, pull yarn tight to close the gap and weave in end securely.

If you make one, why not make 2 and send one to Winterwarm? click the button on this page.

I'm back

Well, that didn't take long at all. The Garden continues to take precedence over the knitting (how did that happen?). I seem to be able to grow anything leafy and green. I'm not so successful at stuff that grows under the ground.

My new mulberry tree, well away from the washing line. Note the new Chicken Prison in the background.

Kale. Tuscan and Russian. Kale makes me happy.

My knitting obsession continues to be socks. It's almost like I need to knit all the socks that are in me before I can move on. I have some ideas as to what I can do to break this sock problem. A little bit of Rowan, a little bit of Nature Wool...things like that.

If there's trouble to be had...

...then FooFoo's having it. If anything looks alarming in the backyard then she's behind it. Breaking down the Chicken-Proof Fence and eating defenceless seedlings, leading (yes, leading) the others up over the chicken house and on to the back fence for a sneaky getaway up the street, climbing the swing set to find another exit over the grumpy neighbour's fence...everything except laying an egg. Contrary bird.

This Saturday it's WWKIP day. That's World-wide Knit in Public Day to all the Muggles out there. Prepare yourselves for random Knitter sightings. Cold snap has come in in the nick of time, if you recall last year's WWKIP day it was gale force winds and freezing temperatures, it looks like the tradition is continuuing.

Foo Foo the Snoo

And then there were 4. Foo Foo joined our happy flock last week, and seems to be settling in fine. A new computer is in the works so full transmission should be resumed shortly.

Still Alive

Yep, I'm still here. New computer arriving any time soon. At least without the distraction of the internet my knitting has been progressing apace.
Garden news is positive, winter greens are at seedling stage. BIG NEWS. Chickens have arrived. Blackie, Blossom and Flowers are happily eating up the yard. Photos to follow :)

The wind, it blows. The sock, it bites.

As you can see, the wind returned. It blew my corn sideways. I'm not sure it's going to recover. I'm getting a bit sick of this stormy weather, things are getting very tatty in the garden. And that dinosaur? Beyond all hope I believe.



On to more serious things. The sock curse remains. I thought I had it broken. I even got a little cocky and was feeling extremely pleased with myself towards the toe. But then I finished the knitting, and moved straight onto grafting without even a short break for refreshments. Yep. the sock bit me. Some extremely disturbing *stuff* happened during grafting involving strangely broken yarn, and an inablity to ungraft it without using a pair of scissors to assist the process. The sock is currently resting with some scrap yarn holding the live stitches. Oh, and to add insult, the sock pulled out the scrap yarn early this evening forcing me to express myself in interesting language and use a crochet hook to save the life of this very ungrateful item.

Pumpkin patch

Yesterday I forgot to post pics of my pumpkin patch - my big pumpkin patch, not the little butternut patch. And my rhubarb, of which I am especially proud. The rhubarb came courtesy of my neighbour's garden and all I did was transplant it. It's not big enough to pick yet, I am still taking liberties with the neighbour's for eating purposes. The pumpkin leaves were a little floppy here, it was the end of a very hot day. Rest assured they perked right up again when the cool change came through.

Still knitting....

Well, I got sick of Hey Teach, frogged it back and used the cotton to do Miss Rachel's Cabled Cap from Yarn magazine. There's no chance Sophie is going to wear a hat made of wool so I endured the pain of cabling and psso'ing with non-giving cotton. It's a little large, I made the 'tween' size (how did my baby turn into someone who fits tween sizes?) and a size smaller needles. It's a pretty pattern which I might be making again, and the written pattern was easier to follow than most.

I am back working on the sock that was earlier cursed. So far so good, no accursed actvity has been noticed. Those magpies have been behaving themselves, and no other strange behaviour has been sighted....

How does your garden grow?

Spinach....

The tomatoes are still green. Apparently staring intently day after day will not speed up the process...



Butternut pumpkins.....pumpkins must be the most satisfying plant to cultivate. So much growth, so fast, so green and happy....

Some of the herbs and marigolds

More spinach!

My lovely sunflowers. I'm so proud of them, I can't stop taking photos :)

Angels

My latest project. It's not like me to be doing special Xmas things but the Bloke's work was in need of angels, so angels I am doing. I sort of modified the Primitive Angel pattern from Little Turtle Knits with some crochet and a change to the shaping. And sizing. Sophie is annoyed that I am doing Angels for Others, so it seems my angel knitting is not yet complete. I'm thinking the purple one looks a little less angelic and more evil than the others.

Sock Curse

I never thought i would be the recipient of a curse. But it seems I am. A fully-fledged disabling Sock Curse.

The story so far...

I have some pretty German sock yarn. Tweed Sockengarn.

Looks innocent enough doesn't it?

I have a pattern. From Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.

I've started the Fancy Silk Sock but this is all I have to show after casting on and working the cuff 6 times

I've prayed to all relevant deities, and made the appropriate offerings. At this stage it seems I have displeased the Knitting Deities....and I suspect it has

something to do with the weird things the magpies were doing in the garden yesterday. I know it's a crappy photo (I was taking it through the flyscreen) but I think

you can see the bird and it's suspicious behaviour if you look carefully

if that's not an Accursed behaviour then I don't know what is.

Blizzard!!!!

Really. It's blizzard conditions here today, in fact it's colder than it was during winter, and stormier, and windy-er. The sunflowers were blown almost to pieces, although are holding up with the help of some hastily applied string.

This weather should put an end to the knitting-mockery that has been occurring around here lately, in fact I suspect knitters will be the only ones still alive by the time this cold front has passed.

Last night saw me break the knitting curse and regain my mojo. It took some serious work on my part but I pushed on and bravely purchased some Noro Silk Garden to help me through. I managed to graft the toes on these

socks which have been sitting in the naughty basket for longer than I care to think. The pattern is Nine-to-Five Socks by Nicole Hind, which is available as a free Ravelry download. I used Tofutsies shade 731 from SWTC which is a soysilk/wool and chitin (seashells!) blend. It's a little splitty to work with and there were *gasp* some knots but as it is sooooo soft and delicious to wear I was able to forgive it, which is saying something as I usually don't forgive for knots. I have some doubts about the environmental and social implications of this yarn though, and haven't really been able to find much information about the production processes, so if anyone can help me out there I'd be grateful.

I've also managed to tink back Hey Teach the couple of rows required and am about to recommence work on it.

It's been great to have my mojo back I was missing it, life isn't the same without some knitting to be done.

The garden travels on. The pumpkins are taking over the world, in just a few weeks something that was a little seed is now a couple of metres of life. They are growing so fast I can almost see them grow, and I am spending a lot of time trying to do just that. Its amazing how much time I can spend watching pumpkins grow. The rubbish has been cleared out, which has felt cleansing and invigorating.

My seeds have become seedlings too, and the lettuces and broccoli are almost ready to move out of their safe little nursery in to the big world of the garden bed. We've picked and eaten the first of the greens and herbs. The garden is a bit late with everything as we went away for a few weeks in September and October so I couldn't get anything into the ground until after then.

My chicken plans progress. I am working on the "build it and they will come" philosophy. If I can just get myself a chook house the birds will make their way here.

You may be wondering why a knitting blog shows no signs of actually being, well, a knitting blog. Well, that's because I haven't actually been knitting much lately. Actually I haven't been knitting at all lately. The garden is absorbing all of my creative energy and I just don't seem to have anything left for the kntting.