How To’s Day: Hat Flaps Take Two!

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….

Crochet Booklet Destash

I recently came into possession of some crochet booklets. I am destashing the ones I know I will not use. So if they are your cup of tea then let me know and they can be yours! They are all gently used some have a little writing in and on them here and there but nothing that detracts from the patterns.

 

I can take payment through PayPal, or if you need to I can accept a check or money order, in which case I will ship out the booklet after the payment clears. Thanks for looking!

The prices below include shipping in the US if international we can make arrangements!

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St. Nick and Mrs Claus outfits for 14″ dolls.  $8.00

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Eggstavaganza.12 egg cover designs to spice up your Easter decor (from Annie’s Attic). & Carrot Cottontail Easter Bunny dresses for use with 5 1/2 ” bunny head and paws set.  $8.00

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Sunbonnet Broom Dolls (Annie’s Attic) 6 different broom doll designs. $4.00

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Nap Pads and Pillows (Annie’s Attic) 6 designs for nap blankets and matching pillows  $4.00

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Angel Sachets (Annie’s Attic) 7 angel sachet designs $3.00 spoken for!

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Fibrecraft: Chief IV (for 15″ doll) Indian Princess IV (for 14 1/2″ doll) & Cactus Flower (for 13″ doll)  $9.00

Mmmm Mmmmm Monday!

I have picked up a few cook books recently and thought I would share a few with you since some of them are sincerely drool worthy!

I openly admit that I am a Yankee through and through! In fact when The Knitting Wannabe holds her annual Sticks and Grits contest I scratch my head and say WHAT ARE GRITS!??? This year I asked her.. yep I’m that ensconced in the northerly ways.. So when I had the chance to get a sneak peek of the book  Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook I jumped at it. With 248 pages, this is not only a great cook book it is a book full of tales of a southern cook! So you get a boat load of great recipes, and some great stories to read while you wait for your cobbler or cornbread to cook!

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Let’s just say that this household is going to see a bit of a cultural cuisine revolution! There are many new to us foods that need to be tried from our southerly neighbors. Who can resist such recipes as Barq’s Root Beer-Glazed Ham? (I meant to try that one on Easter Sunday but it didn’t happen!) or Proper Fried Chicken (that one looks absolutely delicious!) Then there are the tried and true southern dishes that have never seen a plate in this household.. Gumbo Z’Herbs and Tabbouleh and Fried Okra.. If I can find the ingredients you know I will be giving them a try! If you are looking for some new delights in the kitchen you might just want to pick up a copy of this book!

The book is coming out at the end of April but you can always pre-order so it will hit your doorstep ASAP!  If I try some of the recipes over the next couple of weeks I will let you know how they turned out!