Knit a Simple Earflap Hat

I have a friend who did some holiday photos with her sweetie and they are both wearing plaid earflap hats. It might have been the thing to push me over the edge of thinking that earflap hats are actually cute, and not just for lumberjacks.

Lion Brand Yarn has a great free pattern (you have to have a login to download) for a simple earflap hat called Huldra, make with their Scarfie yarn, which adds to the fun because it has different colors and even multicolored bits all in the same ball. It makes it look scrappy and more complex than it is, but it really just takes a ball of yarn and a couple of afternoons to make this stylish and warm hat.

What do you think of earflap hats? Have you ever knit one? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn.]

Next Pattern:

I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about.

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top.

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it.

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side.

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right?

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry.

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]

Next Pattern:

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