Little Ear Flaps for New Little Ears

Despite having knit 2 little baby hats during the recent Ravelympics, I've been feeling the need to knit more. It might have something to do with the fact that I can't decide which cute little baby sweaters I want to knit in 3-6 months size, and which ones I want to knit bigger to fit when the first round of hand knit baby dressage is relegated to hope chests and teddy bears. It might have something to do with having too many single skeins in my stash and not having the time, energy, or budget for very many multiple skein purchases, when there are things like new cribs and car seats to be buying...

I think it has more to do with my very short attention span as of late, that, and a life-long love of hats. At any rate, I've been smitten with the idea of a little ear flap hat- we do live in Minnesota, after all, the land of 10,000 lakes, large and blood thirsty mosquitoes, and more bitter cold, frost covered, toe-numbing months than hot muggy ones every year. (Why, oh why, are the times in between the extremes so short?!)

For Warm Little Ears Hat #1, I went with Blue Sky Alpacas Skinny Dyed in Coffee, with a simple single crochet contrast edging in Squash, perfect fall colors. Cotton will give baby a comfy, cozy, feel, while giving mom carefree washability.

Warm Little Ears Hat #2 has been cast on in the scrumptious Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight (100% baby alpaca) in Natural Dk Brown and Avocado. This one will be striped, because I'm addicted to the stripe. The soft baby alpaca will be a sweet luxury for baby, so soft and deliciously warm, totally worth the hand washing.

I have several more variations planned, including some fun embroidery embellishment. I'm typing through my cryptic design notes, translating them into a readable pattern, to be released as soon as a few more hats are finished and modeled.

Fun stuff to pass the time, eh? 20 days 'till 'due date'...

Happy knitting-

ali

PS- I ravelled my finished Loppem, and hope to post soon about my little cable mishap...