Tag Archives: Free Patterns

How To’s Day: Hat Flaps Take Two!

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howtosday-icon-thumb Today we cover the “somewhere in between” ear flap method. Some of you may remember my little green hat. It has earflaps that can be pulled up and tied at the top when they are not needed, with a little trick, they tuck up nice and neat behind the fold up brim of the hat. Never fear my fellow loom knitters, today you get your own nifty tuck-up-able earflap hats!

Eat your heart out Jayne, my mom can make cleverer hats than yours!

It’s quite easy!

First make your 3 stitch I cord.

Then increase this to however wide you want your earflap (in my case I only made it 5 stitches wide as I am working on a 24 peg loom)

Now since you will be seeing both sides of this earflap I recommend you make it in garter stitch pattern.

Once you have your earflap looking the way you want it cut your yarn leaving a nice tail to weave in, and place it on a stitch  holder or some waste yarn.  And of course you will want to make another one.. unless you only have one ear.

Then cast on all stitches of the loom and work in circular. This will be a fold up brim, you can make it anyway you want, k2p2 ribbing, plain old stockinet, garter stitch, seed stitch you choose! (I chose garter) Knit until you have the length desired for the brim. then.. no mater what stitch pattern you were using you will knit 1 row (I don’t care from flat stitch or e-wrap you choose!)

Here is where it gets tricky.. yep that 4 letter word MATH!!

T= total number of stitches (in my case 24)

E= total number of stitches in BOTH earflaps.  (in my case 10)

So here is the fancy formula:  T – E = X   Take X and divide it by 2. this will = S   S is the magic number!

In my case 24-10= 14   14/2 =7 

I will need to leave 7 stitches between my earflaps so that they are spaced directly across from each other on the loom, and therefore on the head!

You may need to fudge it and have them 1 peg closer to each other in some cases.

So on the next row I will knit S amount of stitches Then you will bind off the number of stitches to match how wide one earflap is. Then knit S  amount of stitches again and then again bind off the number of stitches for one earflap.

You should end on the first stitch of the next row.  And it will look like this:

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Take the earflaps and put the end of the I-cord down through the center of the loom. Place the live loops for each earflap on the corresponding empty pegs on either side of the loom, like so:

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Then continue on incorporating those stitches into the next round. Continue with your hat as normal using whatever stitch you choose and finish it off!

Clever!

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Enjoy! And next time remind me not to write tutorials late at night

Sleep well,  I’ll most likely edit it in the morning….

Freebie Friday! Blythe Crocheted Hat

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I whipped this little hat up for my Blythe doll Claire and thought I would write down what I did so anyone could make it! Keep in mind this is my first attempt at a crochet pattern! This should also fit any American Girl I think as the dimensions of their heads are the same as Blythe dolls I hear! I actually started out using MK’s Beanie pattern for Pullip dolls and veered in my own direction to end up with a beret!

Materials:

Hook: K

Yarn: Small amount of heavy worsted weight yarn. Sample made with Plymouth Bella Colour in color #16. It only took a very small amount to make the hat I will probably use the rest to make her a matching dress.

Notions: removable stitch marker, tapestry needles.

Abbreviations:

hdc: Half Double Crochet                                                                                                        sc: single crochet

Make a slip knot and work 6 sc into it, pull the slip knot to tighten. Mark beginning of the round!

  1. work 2 hdc into each sc (12 stitches)
  2. * work 1 hdc, then inc 1* , repeat to end of row
  3. *work 2 hdc, then inc 1* , repeat to end of row
  4. *work 3 hdc, then inc 1 * , repeat to end of row
  5. *work 4 hdc, then inc 1* , repeat to end of row
  6. *work 5 hdc , then inc 1* , repeat to end of row
  7. Work 2 rounds even in hdc.
  8. *work 5 sc, then decrease by 1*, repeat to end of row
  9. *work 3 sc, then decrease by 1*, repeat to end of row
  10. *work 2 sc then decrease by 1* , repeat to end of row
  11. work 1-2 rows in sc as desired for depth.

Break yarn, and weave in the ends!

Show it off on your girl!

You may use this pattern as you will.. make hats for your dolls, sell them whichever! Please do link back to this site if you make hats and have a website or blog! I would appreciate it!!

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How To’s Day: How to keep those ears warm!

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Let’s face it! It is still chilly outside!  And when it is cold it’s important to stick a hat on your head and keep your ears warm!! What better way to keep your ears warm than some clever ear flaps on your hat! 

*jayne's clever hat

Now how to do it. As I thought about that I figured there was more than one way to get the job done. So we will look at three ways to do it! And these principles can translate to needles too , though I will be sticking to my roots and showing these techniques on the knitting looms. I will be covering these it separate posts as it seems that to get this all together at once is impossible especially when I keep thinking of different better ways to do this!! I will pop them all together in a pdf when the series is done!

  1. Starting with the earflaps and working your way up.
  2. Starting at the top and making the earflaps last.
  3. Somewhere in between!

To start with the earflaps and work your way up.. you can make an I-cord to tie your hat on (or not)  I usually work a 3 stitch I-cord. Once you have your I-cord made you start to work as for a flat piece and increase 2 stitches at each end of the row every other row till you have the ear flap as wide as you want.

Then keep knitting till you get it as long as you want.  Now, break yarn, look across your loom and start again with the center stitch directly across from the center of your finished earflap. 

Then once you are done with your earflaps you simply work your way around your loom and make your hat, your usual way!

earflap hat flapfor knifty knitter flaps up

In this sample I used a garter stitch  earflaps and brim. It is best to use this sort of brim or even a ribbed brim so that that edges between the earflaps will not curl!

Some things to keep in mind:

  • if you make your earflaps in stockinet stitch the edges will curl. so if you don’t want this to happen work your earflaps in garter stitch!
  • It seems to me that baby ears are set more toward the front, so you might want to place them closer to the front.
  • Older ears seem to sit in the middle so center the earflaps for older than baby ears.
  • If you are making your earflaps a different color than the rest of your hat be sure to match the type of yarn.. you sure wouldn’t want to go and wash your hat in the washer and have your ear flaps felt on you!!

* of course this is THE most clever earflap hat ever.. Jayne Cobb’s hat from Firefly!

I might use the earflap up method for this one.. dispensing with the i-cords and making the earflaps on the wider side..

fruit punch blythe claire modeling hat

“I think my hat is quite clever.. thank you!” says Claire.

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