Day 16 - Lofty Braided Ear-Flap Hat

I love my mittens so much I was hoping I will have enough yarn left to make another hat. I gathered up the end of the last ball and the little bit from the first ball of this yarn and together they weight 126 grams.



The pattern calls for 3-50g balls of yarn so I'm hoping I'll be able to get this hat done with 126 grams. Worst case scenario, I will pull out the first ear flap hat I made with this yarn. I find it a bit large anyway.

This pattern calls for waste yarn to be cast on before the ear flaps are knit, I used a screaming orange worsted weight I had close at hand for this use. This is a first for me. I'm not sure what happens with that later but I'm assuming that it'll get pulled out.

Here's the beginning of the hat, both flaps are ready:




I don't have a 40cm 5.5mm circular needle but I have two longer ones, a 60 and an 80. I tried the 2 circular needle method first but I didn't really know what I was doing and I found it awkward to do so I thought I'd use the longer needle and try the magic loop method.

I really think I like just having the right length needle but I guess the magic loop method is okay too. I pulled my needle out of the stitches once already looping the cord in a new spot but this yarn doesn't just drop the stitches so I was easily able to pick them up again.

I think I'll watch the video on the 2 circular needle method a couple more times and give that another shot again. I feel like I'm doing damage to the cord on my very nice Addi-Turbo.

I love this pattern. It is as well written as the mittens were so far. I'm over half way to the crown reduction already. Maybe by Tuesday I'll be wearing a nice matching hat with my incredibly warm new mittens.






The pattern is Lofty Braided EarFlap Hat by Crystal Palace Yarns. Available for free on Ravelry.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad, Pictures taken with iPhone 3.0 running OS 4.0.