How to Add Ear Flaps and Braided Strings to your Crochet Hat -

Hey! Today, we’re going to add some cute ear flaps to our granny stripe hat we worked on in the previous post. Ear flaps can be a bit daunting if you’re just learning how to crochet, but they don’t have to be. In this post, I’ll go over how where to place them, and then how to make them so they fit the hat you’re working on, and can be adjusted based on how big your hat is. And finally, we’ll add some braided tassels to the bottom.

Deciding where to crochet our ear flaps

So, it may be interesting to learn, but measuring around your head, like in the image below, the front of your ears, on both sides, can be considered a midway point.

So, if the front of our ears are the center of our 2 sides, we need to position our ear flaps slightly to the back side of that midway point. I like to move about 2 -3 stitches in front of that center, and place my first marker there. And in the same position on the opposite side. I have cut 4 scraps of yarn, but a removeable stitch marker will work just as well.

For the back side of the ear flap, I measure about half way between the front marker, and the back seam. You may have to adjust on a bigger hat, and make it a few stitches less than the halfway (closer to the front marker)

Insert 2 more markers at the back of the ear flaps. Double check your stitch count between your markers, and make sure they’re the same.

Crocheting the ear flaps

Insert your crochet hook at the back seam. You can switch colours if you want to, or if your pattern needs it. Ch 1, then sc over to the first marker. Now, sc over top of the marker stitch, then hdc in the next one, the dc across to 1 stitch before the other marker. Hdc in the next st, and sc in the stitch over the marker.

Now, we’re going to chain 2, and turn your hat around. Hdc into the hdc in the previous row. Dc to 1 stitch before the end of the dc in the previous row, hdc into the last dc, and sc into the hdc.

Continue this pattern until your ear flap is long enough: Ch2, turn. hdc into the hdc from the previous row, dc across, hdc in the last dc from the row below, and sc into the hdc. Depending on the size of your hat 2-4″ is a good length for your ear flaps.

When you’re at your desired length, ensure you stop at the left side of your ear flap (with the outside of your hat towards you). Single crochet down the left side, and across the front of your hat.

Work your way over to the next marker and follow above, for your second ear flap.

Once you finish both, and work your way back around to the seam, with sc. Slip st to the ch at the beginning of the row.

To finish, single crochet around the whole hat, at least one more time. I usually will add 2sc to the bottom corners of each ear flap to square it off a little.

How to Add Braided or Twisted Tassels!

So when you’re finished your ear flaps, we then add some fun braided strings to them. You can twist 2 strands, if you like, or braid three strands. I like twists more for hats for boys, but they’d work for girls too! We’re going to do braids in this post, but the same elements apply for twists.

Grab the yarn you’re going to use, and fold it in half. With the fold on the ear flap, measure how long you want the string to be. Keep in mind it needs to tie on the ear flap, and will use some of the length when braiding. I recommend making the strands longer than needed and when you get to the desired length of the braid, tie it off. When they’re the correct length, and both are the same, you’ll cut off the excess.

Cut your strands. For a braid you need multiples of 6 strands, for the twist, multiples of 4. In the video below, I use 4 strands of white, and 12 strands of purple. For some reason, even though they’re both a weight of 4, the purple looked and felt thinner. I am using an extra piece for each strand of the braid.

I matched up 2 pieces of white, and 2 sets of 3 pieces of purple for our 3 strands. We need this twice for each ear flap.

Fold your bunches of yarn, in their groups, in half. Insert your crochet hook into the desired stitch, catch all the yarn, and pull through a decent sized loop, then pull the tails through the loop and tighten them down so they create a knot at the top. If you insert your hook into the front or from the back , do this for all 3 strands.

Do this 2 more times with your other 2 strands. I put them on the bottom of the ear flap so they are evenly spaced.

Once all 3 are tight on the ear flap, braid your sting until it reaches your desired length.

To braid, take one of your outside strands and pass it over to the middle, then take the other outside strand and twist it over the new one in the middle. Continue moving the outside strand to the middle, back and forth from the left side to the middle, then the right side to the middle. I also like to pin my hat between my knees to anchor it while I braid. When you get to the desired length, take a scrap of yarn and tie it around the bottom of your strand a couple of times to secure it.

Repeat with the other ear flap, and when you’re getting down to the end of the second, match up you 2 sides and check to make sure they’re both the same. We don’t need lopsided tassels! Tie off the second tassel, and trim your bottom strands so they are nice and even.

Finally, if you hadn’t prior to this point, weave in your ends and you’re finito!

Watch our video for this tutorial in action.