It finally got cold enough here last night that I busted out the earflap hat when I went out to do a few chores around the property. It has to be pretty cold for me to stoop to the earflap hat (which also features a tassel and a polar bear motif). But every time I wear it I think, "Wow, this thing is warm! Why don't I wear it more often?"
Earflaps are an amazing thing, but they are also a little bit homely. It's unfortunate, because in cold and windy conditions, your ears can really suffer. Ears are so tender! A quick little knitted flap can do wonders to keep you comfortable.
And yet.
There are a lot of different ways to knit earflaps. Whenever possible, you will probably want to knit them in either garter stitch or seed stitch, to keep them from curling. Nothing makes an earflap hat even goofier than earflaps that curl up and flap around all cockeyed and weird.
Earflaps also get goofier if you pick up the stitches and knit them down from the brim. Which is too bad, because this is by far the easiest way to knit earflaps. But when you pick up stitches and knit down, you are virtually guaranteeing that those earflaps are going to stick out and flap in the breeze. Not only will this look silly, it also defeats the purpose of earflaps.
(You can help prevent flapping by adding a long tassel or cord to the end of each flap to keep it weighted down, and possibly allow them to be tied under the chin. But this, too, does not help with the overall aesthetic.)
When it comes to a relatively sedate earflap hat pattern for a grownup, the solid-colored version of Thorpe (pictured above) is a good place to start. This hat is knit from the top down, with the earflaps and the brim worked in garter stitch.
Image courtesy Flickr/looseends
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