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| original HK hat |
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| pseudo garter st ear |
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| attach ear to hat |
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| 2018 remake |
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| cast off ear sts on inside of hat |
I have never knit an earflap hat – well, actually, I
don’t think I’ve ever machine knit any hat. So, where does one start? A few weeks back, I mentioned that Valery, a
newbie mk-er from San Diego had told me she was knitting earflap hats and they
were selling like hotcakes every time she took them into her workplace. She
gave me her pattern source, which was a bulky machine pattern from the San
Diego mk guild site (Knitten Buds) and I used that as a starting point (thanks Valery and thanks Knitten Buds!). Went to
Michael’s and Wal-Mart in search of minion-coloured yarn – it should be a
bright, lemon yellow, I think – suitable for the mid gauge machine. 
So, back to the circle for the eye/goggles – I thought
the chain cast-on would make the outside nicely so incorporating my ‘outlining
the patch pocket’ idea – did the chain (35, 42 ns) in gray, knit 1 row and then
took it off on waste yarn. Using white yarn, cast on ( 5, 6 sts) and shortrow a
circle, hanging a chain stitch from the edging on every row, graft it together
and Bob’s your uncle! a minion eye! For Nate, I used a brown button – he and
minions have brown eyes. Rhiana, she wanted 2 green eyes to match her own.
I made the original pattern – it turned out too small of
course, but gave me the general idea. After adjusting stitches and rows, the
size was okay, but I didn’t like the top of the hat being gathered into a
circle so I reworked it using the ‘decreasing evenly across the row’ several
times that results in a spiral top – this is good – probably not what you’d do
if you’re wanting to mass produce but I’ve got the time for my grandkids! (and
a mid gauge garter bar! nah-nah-na-na!) I did the earflaps in a denim-look yarn to simulate the minions’ jeans and added hair
– put a tuft on Nate’s and for Rhiana, I unraveled some black WCD from a steamed
Boondoogle swatch that had some lovely kinks for curls…
