One of my friends just had a baby, and of course I wanted to knit him a hat. However, I didn’t think I should send him a present without knitting his older sister a hat as well! I chose to knit the Garter Ear Flap Hat by Purl Soho for Siiri, who is now three years old. After asking my friend what sized head she has, I chose to make the small adult size. I used a 100% alpaca DK yarn and 3.5 mm needles. The alpaca will surely help keep her warm during those frigid Finnish winters!

The pattern starts with the bottom edge of the hat, knit in a stockinette stitch that rolls up. After this, you switch to smaller needles. The pattern instructions shape the ear flaps using short rows. Because the short rows are worked in garter stitch in this pattern, you do not have to pick up the wraps; simply ignore the wraps when you come to them.

After the main body is knit with garter stitch, you start the decreases. The decreases make the hat look like an elf hat, and I’m sure it looks adorable on Siiri. A little tassle tops it all off!

This pattern for the Garter Ear Flap Hat was easy to follow, and it includes several sizes from Baby to Adult Large. If you wanted, you could knit matching hats for the whole family! In general, these hats knit up really quickly; I was able to finish this in a day.

Due to the cute design and multiple sizes, I included this hat pattern in my roundup of free hat knitting patterns, found here.

The Garter Ear Flap Hat pattern is available on the Purl Soho website here.

Here’s a glimpse of the baby boy’s hat…coming to the blog in the next few weeks!

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