Several people have asked for a pattern for the ear flap hats I've made. I'm including my version of the ear flap hat here, free for your enjoyment.

Karen's Ear Flap Hat Pattern

This pattern is a combination of a couple of different patterns I found online. I adjusted it to be used with worsted weight yarn.

Materials:
Worsted Weight yarn, 1 skein, about 4 oz. or about 200 yards (sample knit with Red Heart "Strata")
US Size 5, 16” circular knitting needle
US Size 5 double pointed needles (set of 4)
Tapestry Needle
Crochet Hook, about size F.

Guage: About 5 stitches/inch, although some flexibility is fine.

Sizes: Child's Medium (Women’s size medium, large)

Ear Flap:

Using 16” circular needle, cast on 4 stitches.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: k1, make 1 (m1) by knitting into the bar between stitches, knit to last stitch, m1, k1
Row 4: Purl

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until there are 20 sts on needle. End with row 4.
Break yarn, but leave ear flap on needle.

Make another ear flap.

Hat:

Row 1: Cast 5 (6, 8) stitches onto circular needle. Knit all sts from one ear flap. Cast on 28 (32, 34) sts. using backward loop method. Knit all sts from second ear flap. Cast on final 5 (6) sts using backward loop method. 78 (84) total stitches.

Join and mark beginning of round.

Row 2: Purl 5 (6, 8), knit ear flap stitches, purl 28 (32, 34), knit ear flap stitches, purl final 5(6, 8) stitches. Total stitches: 78 (84, 90)

Row 3: Repeat Row 2.

Knit in stockinette stitch until hat measures 6 (6, 6 ½)”, not including ear flaps. You can knit patterns into this section, or you can add stripes as desired.

Decrease Rows:

Row 1: Knit 11 (12, 13)) stitches, k2 tog. Repeat to end of row.
Row 2: Knit 10 (11, 12), k2 tog. Repeat to end of row.
Row 3: Knit 9 (10, 9), k2 tog. Repeat to end of row.

Continue this decrease pattern, switching to dpns (double pointed needles) when the hat gets too small for the circular needle. Quit when there are fewer than 10 stitches left.

Break yarn, leaving 6 inch tail. Thread yarn through remaining stitches, pulling tight. Hide all yarn ends.

Optional ending: Continue decreasing until there are 3 sts. and work an I-cord for about 3 inches. Slip 1 stitch, k2 tog., pass slipped stitch over remaining stitch. Fasten off and hide end. Tie I-cord into a knot.

Using crochet hook and starting in the middle of the back, single crochet around entire hat. Fasten off and hide ends.

Braids:
Cut 8 strands of yarn, about 1 yard long. Using tapestry needle, pull each strand through one of the 4 stitches you cast onto the bottom of the ear flaps. Divide doubled strands into 3 groups for each ear flap and braid to the end. Tie a knot in the end of braid and trim ends.

Another Purse Finished! I knitted this Brea Bag for a Christmas present. The pattern for it can be found on here on Berroco's website.

This is a hat, glove and scarf set I knitted for someone. She wanted it to go well with black or brown, and have novelty yarn. Hope it fits the bill. It should be quite warm. The yarn is a wool blend, but not at all scratchy, even to my sensitive skin.

Here's the latest little baby sweater off my needles. I like how this one turned out. Bonnie at the dry cleaners did a super job blocking it for me. I gave it to a neighbor who had a baby girl last summer. I just learned a friend of mine is expecting a boy in March. Another friend is having a baby in December, but has opted not to discover the baby's gender ahead of time. How annoying is that? I guess I'll start on a boy's sweater and maybe make a girl's one too for good measure. I have more of the yarn I made this one from.

I'm not sure I'm ready for fall. Still, with the leaves turning beautiful colors and dropping from the trees, and the temperatures dropping just as dramatically, I have no choice but to acknowledge that autumn is definitely in the air. We actually got some snow today. I hope it warms up some next week for Halloween.



I've embellished this fall colored purse. I started with the grapes, figuring that I would add a vine or something. Then I started making the cute little felted flowers. The colors seemed right, so I added them to the mix instead of a vine. I like the finished product!



This is a smaller bag, my own pattern. I got the flower pattern from Nickie Epstein's Knitted Embellishments book. I love that book! It is actually two flowers; the flat purple one, and then a small rosette added to the middle.

Wow! What a busy summer it has been! Between knitting, beekeeping, a community play, Farmers Market, and keeping up with 7 kids, I haven't had time to update my blog in awhile. So, I have tons of pictures to share! They're not in any particular order.


Here's a picture of some of our beehives. These are in the back yard, right beside my big vegetable garden. The bees seem pretty happy here. Unfortunately, we'll probably have to move them before spring. I got stung last week and, instead of the usual local swelling and itching, I got a full-body allergic reaction this time. I broke out in horrible hives. So, I'm retiring from beekeeping. I think my husband will continue to keep the bees, with the help of the kids. I'll take care of the honey!



I was thrilled to discover this yarn at my local WalMart. It's called Stratta. It's a Red Heart acrylic yarn. I like acrylic yarn because animal fibers make me itch. The reason I was so excited to find this yarn is that it stripes like sock yarn, but it's worsted weight! I've hoped for yarn like this for a long time! It makes really fun hats and scarves. It seems a bit stiff when you first knit it up, but after washing, it softens quite a bit.




I found a pattern I like for hats with ear flaps. I've been on a hat knitting jag ever since. I really like this pattern. It's fun to try in different kinds of yarn.

I've been making these little pumpkin hats for the fall. They're so cute!



Here's another ear flap hat. This one is knitted in Red Heart Symphony yarn. It's fuzzy and oh, so soft.



Here's one of my Mini Madame bags. The pattern is for sale at the Knitting Vault. I'll be embellishing this little purse with some knitted flowers. It's for my niece for Christmas.



Here's another of the ear flap hats. This one is knitted in Encore, a wool and acrylic blend yarn.





This little sweater is from a book with patterns for babies and dogs called The Gift Knitter. I thought this little sweater turned out cute. It will go to a baby in my church.




Yet another ear flap hat. This one is knitted in Red Heart acrylic camoflage yarn.




This hat and scarf set just lacks gloves, which I have purchased the yarn for, and will start soon.


This ear flap hat is knitted in Encore. The small bits of color lined up in an interesting pattern. I crochetted around the edge of this hat, as I did with some of the other hats from this pattern.

These felted flowers are from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments book. I love that book!! I love the fat little roses. I think these flowers will be just the thing to embellish some of the bags I've got in the works.



I made this ear flap hat in our local high school colors, purple and white.





This is another sweater from The Gift Knitter. It's made with chunky yarn and knitted up quite quickly. I've made two sweaters from this pattern. I knitted it during rehearsals for "Oklahoma," the musical I was in this summer. I gave it to a new mom in our church.



I hope thse scarves don't go out of style soon. I've had someone ask me to make some to sell in her store on consignment. Hope it works out. I think they're really fun.



I knitted this little hat out of some pretty yarn from my local yarn store. The store underwent an ownership change, so all the yarn was at a great discount for awhile! I liked this yarn so well, I went back for more, but it was all gone. I made another hat out of the same yarn, but in pink. I sold that hat at Farmers Market yesterday. And, they're out of the pink yarn too. Bummer. Let this be a lesson to you. Always buy more yarn than you think you'll actually need. :)



This is the hat I started and finished just today. It's a little hard to see the color. It is a light sage with pink flowers and edging. It's from the must recent issue of "Knit It" magazine. It's project number 29 in the magazine. I mistakingly thought from the picture in the mag that the picot trim was done in a contrasting color. I relized before I started that it wasn't, but I thought it would look cute, so I went ahead and did mine in a contrasting yarn. I like the result.

These pictures are two sides of the same handbag. This purse has been floating around in my head for some time. I wanted to make it as a Christmas present for a family member. I grew up in Oregon, where tall pine trees grow and wildlife flourishes. I wanted this purse to reflect those memories.






The pine trees are taken from Nicky Epstein's book, "Knitted Embellishments." I love her books! Maybe next I'll try to create the ocean in a bag! Probably not. I don't have much light blue yarn.









This little sweater is for a little baby named Aria. She was born to my neice about a month ago.

Here's the finished product! I just added an I-cord stem and a couple of knitted leaves. I think it's cute.

The bag with the yellow daisy, pictured below, sold the day I put it in the shop.

Here are a couple more of my Madame Dupaix bags. Someone was asking where I got the pattern--I invented it! I also sell the pattern. Just email me. It is $4, I prefer PayPal. It will be sent via email as a .pdf file.

This particular bag seems to need something. Originally I had knitted in some large sequins along the top and bottom, but they didn't survive the felting process very well, so I removed them. Maybe I"ll add some black beads along the bottom or something. I'll have to think on that.




This is one of my favorites. The flower was fun to make. Incidentally, the yarn for both of these bags was purchased at a thrift store. It is Red Heart 100% wool. The label claims it is washable, but when you read the washing instructions, you have to be VERY gentle in your washing, and only use cold water. I thought to myself, "That means it will felt if I use hot water and torture it." A test swatch proved this theory correct. It felted like a dream!

This isn't knitting related, but it is beekeeper related. Last Wednesday I was out at night (a mistake) taking some frames of bees out of a hive to put into a small observation hive with glass sides. I must not have had my veil on properly, as I got stung on the lip! It swelled up quickly and badly. I ended up going to the ER in fear of having my tongue or neck swell up and compromise my breathing! It's all better now. Here's a picture.

I had a question about the construction of the raspberry purse. Robyn didn't leave me a return email, so I thought I'd better respond to her question here. Maybe others have the same question. Here's a diagram showing how the narrow 1 1/2 inch strip wraps around, becoming the sides of the purse.

This little sweater is going to a Downs Syndrome baby who was born to my friend. She's going to be so cute in it! I crocheted picots around the edges of the sweater. The rosette is also crocheted. The sweater is knitted.

Here's baby sweater number two from the same pattern. This one is for another friend who had a baby girl recently.

Here's my daughter's bag--all finished! I embellished it with buttons and beads to simulate flowers. The threads on the top white stripe are needle-felted on. I like how it turned out. My daughter loves it! She takes it everywhere with her!

It's a beautiful day! Sunny and about 81 degrees. I've been spending a lot of time out in the yard, but I still don't have my vegetable garden planted yet. It's on my to do list. Hopefully this week it will get done.

Some of the kids had strep throat this week; so did I. Of course, we mothers never really get a break, but I was able to get on antibiotics before I got too sick. I'm feeling much better now.

Meanwhile, I have been knitting. My license plate cover says "She would rather knit." It's the truth. I'd rather knit than most other things. Here are a couple of my latest projects:



Yet another "Madame Dupaix" bag. I love this pattern (even though I did make it up myself)! It knits up so quickly! This one is for my daughter's 17th birthday. I'll put some buttons and beads on it, and maybe some embroidery before I give it to her. It turned out a bit longer than I thought. One of the top layer of cream colored yarns wasn't wool, and even though I knitted it along with a wool yarn, it didn't felt very well (neither have I ;) ). Still, it works fine in this bag. It just made it longer.




This isn't finished, but all the knitting is done. It's like the raspberry purse, only black. So, it's a black raspberry purse! I need to make the lining and then attach the handles. This was special-ordered by the person who bought my raspberry purse.

Okay, here's the instructions for the hazelnut stitch:

Work over a number of sts divisible by 6 + 2.

Row 1: *P2, K1. Repeat from*, ending with P2.
Row 2: *k2, p1, k2, (k1,p1,k1,p1) all in the next st,* repeat from*, end with k2.
Row 3: *P8, K1. Repeat from* end with P2.
Row 4: K2, *P1, K8, repeat from*
Row 5: Same as row 3.
Row 6: *K2, P1, K2, p4 tog. Repeat from* end on k2.
Row 7: *P2, k1. Repeat from* end with p2.
Row 8: *K2, (k1, p1, k1, p1) all in the next st, k2, p1. Repeat from*, end with k2.
Row 9: P2, *K1, P8. Repeat from*.
Row 10: *k8, p1, repeat from* end with k2
Row 11: same as row 9
Row 12: *k2, p4 tog, k2, p1 repeat from* end with k2.

Repeat these 12 rows until desired length. Bind off all stitches.


For the purse that I made with this stitch, I cast on 38 stitches, worked for 7 1/2 inches, ending with row 7. I knitted 2 1/2 inches, then bound off all stitches. I made the back the same way, then knitted a strip about 1 1/2 inches wide that went around the edges between the front and back. I lined the purse, making my lining pattern from the knitted pieces before sewing them together. I installed a zipper on the top between the front and back, sewed the strip all around and added handles. Voila! Raspberry purse. I used worsted weight yarn.

Here's another bag created from my "Madame Dupaix" bag pattern. It's knitted and then felted. I also needle-felted a gecko to it this time. I like how the colors work together. It seems like each new bag I make with this pattern becomes my new favorite! I'm not sure why this picture is smaller than the other ones. The bag itself is larger!



This little purse is supposed to be one of those that goes with an easter dress. I made it out of cotton yarn, with novelty yarn carried along for the handle and top of the purse. Inside, I have sewn plastic canvas to the front and back to give it more stability.



Back in March I posted a picture of this purse in progress. It's made from a stitch pattern called the hazelnut stitch. As I mentioned before, I think it looks like raspberries here! I put a zipper in this purse; my first zipper, I might add. Worked out just fine. I also lined it because there are holes in the tops of all the "raspberries." I was working with just one skein of yarn, and just barely had enough to finish it.

After finally outgrowing the pencil holder I was using, my circular knitting needles needed a new home. I liked one I saw in a catalog, but didn't want to pay the $40 they were asking for it. So, I designed my own. Want a copy of the pattern? $2 and it's yours. Email me for details. If you want me to make one for you, we can talk about that too. krndpx@yahoo.com



This is the needle holder opened. There are 10 vinyl covered sleeves for the circulars to fit into. I put stickers on them noting the sizes stored there.

Here is my latest felted handbag. I learned how to work bobbles into my purse pattern. It's really easy. Here's the recipe:
This is worked in stockinette stitch or reverse stockinette stitch.

Row 1: Into the bobble stitch (your choice of how far apart to make them) work (yo, K1) 3 times; there are now 6 sts on needle, all made from the same st. Turn the work.
Row 2 (Wrong Side): Sl 1 purlwise, K remaining 5 sts. Turn the work.
Row 3: Sl 1 knitwise, K rem. 5 sts. Turn the work.
Row 4: (P2 tog.) 3 times. Turn.
Row 5: Sl 1, K2 tog, psso. 1 rem. st. Continue row normally.

Try it. It's easy. You can add them to hats, purses, sweaters, whatever!



I made these two felted easter baskets from Creative Knitting's March issue pattern. I was a bit disappointed that the handles were floppy and wouldn't hold up. Trying to figure out how to stiffen them.



I bought this big cone of variagated yellow cotton Peaches & Cream yarn. It was so pretty. There was a dishcloth pattern under the label, so I tried it out. No picture; working sight unseen. Above is the result.



So, then I had to try the pattern with a couple of contrasting yarns. Above is my second try.



I was on a roll! Here's my third dishcloth from the same pattern.



And my final and favorite attempt at this pattern is done in really bright colors. I used 3 different colors of cotton yarn for this one. My husband says it looks like an old computer game called "Little Brick Out!"




Lookie what came in the mail today! I've been waiting a long time for this. I bought it off of Ebay and it came from Canada. It's acryllic and about sport weight. Can't wait to knit a swatch and see what I can do with it! It's really big; weighs about 4 1/2 pounds!