And the last Christmas hat is done!

I am happy to say, I was able to rework the pattern so it’s completely seamless

As written, you knit flat around the face opening (and seam it closed at the end). Then knit until the ear increases are done. Then you cast off, and knit down the back. Then you pick up stitches around the bottom and knit the neck ribbing (again knitting flat). At the end, you sew the neck and face opening seams. And seam the back and up the ears.

It was very easy to knit the face opening in the round, getting rid of that seam. Then you still knit flat until ears are increased. But then it gets tricky to continue seamlessly. I managed it by putting the ear stitches on holders, and using short rows, ssks, and ktogs to join the sides to the back as you knit. Then it was simple to pick up the neck and knit in the round until its complete. The ears were then grafted closed.

And while I’m happy with how it looks, grafting the ears did leave a little hole that needed to been seamed closed, so it’s no quite a perfect solution.

I’m going to try again… using short rows and decreases to close the ears before starting the back. I’m not sure it’s going to work, but I figure it’s worth a shot.

I’m recording my notes, so whichever way is more successful, I’ll share the pattern with all of you. Hopefully by the end of the month!