Another hat....

This time for a friend.

In a post from earlier this year I shared about one of my Pinterest boards called "Things I want my Mum to Make" and the little earflap hat I crocheted for one of my granddaughters.

Our minister and wife have just had their first grandson and the minister's wife thought it would be really nice if she could give an earflap hat to him especially as it will be winter in the USA, where they live, when Noah will be six months old.

She came around and we hunted through my bag of leftover balls of wool and she found a couple of colours she liked.

It didn't take long to make up especially as I had already made the first one and I knew not only how to make it but the best way to make it nice and thick and warm.

I used some left over double knit wool but a smaller crochet hook than last time so the stitches were closer together and so thicker...

This meant the tension was different so I actually had to undo it a few times to make sure it was going to be big enough.

To make it bigger I just had to increase the number of 'increase' rows at the crown before starting the rounds with no increases that would then make the sides of the cap.
Then it was just a matter of making up the ear flaps starting at the right position in the hat.

This time I made a woggle to go on the ties so the hat could be secured under the chin by pulling it up but still having the ties joined in a loop. This is so that if the hat slipped off it would just hang round the neck.

And then to finish, I made a nice thick pompom.

When I was a child, I was given a kit (similar to the one in the pic) as we often give to young girls who like doing crafty things and I made pompom toys many years ago. I have kept the plastic 'frames' and they are really handy now for making pompoms for finishing off outfits instead of having to thread wool round and through a couple of circles of cardboard..