I know I promised my next blog post would be about two-stranded knitting techniques (coming next, I promise) but I have just designed this cute Ear Flap Bobble Hat and wanted to share it with you.

It’s been fairly cold here in England for the past few weeks with some beautiful morning frosts. So lovely to get out for a walk and see the faint winter sun’s rays shining over a glistening landscape. You have to wrap up warm though, with gloves, scarves and a hat. But I find my ears get really cold, unbearably so. I need something to cover my ears, not just my head. This motivated me to do something with two balls of yarn that Rowan sent me a few months ago. So I decided to make a bobble hat but one with ear flaps.

The two balls of yarn that I used are new this season from Rowan: Merino Aria and Soft Bouclé.

Rowan Merino Aria

Merino Aria is made of 100% Merino yarn and is so incredibly squishy and soft, so soft you can definitely wear next to your skin. When you squeeze a few strands of the yarn in the palm of your hand it bounces back immediately. It has a chainette construction which is obscured by a soft halo of fibres all making it super light to wear and knits up quick on 7mm needles. At the moment Merino Aria comes in 9 different shades…

Rowan Merino Aria

I was given the lovely pink shade Shrimp but would love to see the white shade Snow. As Merino is naturally a pure white colour it takes the dye well and therefore it is possible to get some lovely prismatic shades and not just muted shades, like the muted shades you get with yarns like Soft Yak. So, I’m sure the shade Snow would be a lovely pure white rather than a yellowy-white. This is also why the pink shade was a clean pink rather than a muted or “dirty” pink. I just love my prismatic colours!

Soft Bouclé

Soft Bouclé is made from cotton, alpaca, Merino wool and polyamide. It is a chunky yarn with a fluffy and loopy appearance that knits up quick on 6mm to create a light textured fabric. It is also soft and squishy just like Rowan Merino Aria. Soft Bouclé also comes in 9 shades. I received the dark grey shade Slate.

Rowan Soft Bouclé

The Ear Flap Bobble Hat

Deciding on how these two yarns would go together was not easy at first until I decided to use stripes. The Soft Bouclé was perfect for the stripes as it gave a raised fluffy appearance and would look great around the edge of the hat and against the smoother knitted-up fabric of Merino Aria.

The hat is knitted in the round from the top down starting at the crown which means it can be easily adjusted for a perfect fit. I used 6.5 mm needles to give a tighter knitted fabric for Merino Aria as I thought this might make a warmer hat.

I tested my Ear Flap Bobble Hat at the beach last Sunday. It was about 3 C (37 F) and, as nearly always is at the beach, a brisk breeze was blowing. Perfect weather conditions to see if my head and ears stayed warm. Result: yes they did. Head and ears lovely and warm. The hat can be worn loose so the bobble flops downwards at the back of the head or pull the hat forward so it covers the forehead. For extra ear warmth tie the wool plaits under the chin.

So, what do you think of my new hat? Please leave me a comment by scrolling down to “Leave a Reply” below.

You can read more and buy the pattern here on Ravelry or here on Lovecrafts, or take a look at all my other knitting patterns for sale.

Thanks for reading my blog all the way to the end!

Esther x