Barry lost his chullo at school and so he asked me to knit him a new one. I’ve read over the pattern and this will be a challenge, but I like that. I’m planning on lining it after it is knitted, just to make it warmer and have a nicer finish on the inside. The recommended needles size is a 1, but I’m using a #2 because my knitting is so tight when I strand two colors. He wanted a touch of purple in the hat - Northwestern’s color. I love all of MaryAnn Stephens’ patterns.

If you click on the top picture, you can see the whole hat.

I’m knitting a double thickness on the ear flaps so I’m knitting them in the round, using Magic Loop. I’m just repeating the chart for the ear flap twice. I like not having to purl and the inside of the earflaps will look nice and not need to be lined.

Starting the hat and knitting all those backward loop cast-on stitches wasn’t pleasant - be sure to loosely do the backward loop cast-ons and it will be easier - there are 110 of these stitches! It also helps to use the Addi Lace needles - they are so sharp to get into the loops.

I had knitted a double thickness for the earflaps and so had two sets of stitches on parallel stitch holders on the earflaps. When I picked up the stitches to join them to the beginning of the hat, I just knit them right off the stitch holders, going into the two stitches of the earflaps at the same time and knitting them together.

The i-cord does take a long time but it is well worth it. I used this method for my iCord and used a long circular needle, which was nice.

Be careful when picking up the stitches for the iCord - make sure that you pick them up fairly close together. If you don’t the edging will be too tight and pucker, especially around the ear flaps.

I knitted the black liner using a 40” circular and Magic Loop in the Baby Ull. I wish I’d done the body of the hat on Magic Loop.