Wide Crochet Ear-Brassiere

The end of January brought us the coldest day here since Feb 2011. When I went to work one morning, the wind chill it was 15 below zero. Of course, that same day the actual temp at my mom's house only made it up to -3.  Clearly living in Chicagoland for the past 13 or so years has made me a wimp!

Of course when I was living in Minnesota if I was outside for any extended period of time I was doing something active like shoveling or running to class.  Standing outside is a whole different ball of wax.  There is only so much room that I can pace, hop and dance around.

I knew this really cold day was coming so I got to thinking about what I could do to stay warm outside.  Obviously I would wear layers of long underwear, but I didn't thing that was enough.  I noticed that on windy days my ears and forehead would get cold. I have a hat with ear flaps that usually keeps me warm enough, except when the wind blows stronger than 20 mph.

Then I saw Mrblocko wearing what we call an ear brassiere.  I thought wearing one of those over my hat would stop the wind from getting through and cover more of my forehead.  I didn't want to steal his as he would need it to stay warm until his car heated up.  So I decided to see if I could crochet one.

I found this pattern for a Wide Headband with ribbing stitch over at Crochet Geek.  The stitches seemed simple enough and there was a great video.  I don't know about you, but I always do better when I can actually see what it is I'm supposed to be crocheting before I do it.

The whole thing took me 3.5 hours to complete.  This was from start to finish.  When I mean from start to finish, I'm including: choosing the yarn, beginning the pattern and discovering the yarn was too thin, picking out another yarn, and all the other normal interruptions that go along with having your husband and daughter home for the day. (What, it's like they expect to talk to me over the weekends and stuff.  The nerve of those people!!!) 

The yarn I finally settled on was Joann Fabric brand Sensations Angel Hair in Berry stitched up with an H hook.(The yarn that was too thin was Red Heart Baby TLC in case you were curious.)

I didn't have to crochet as many rows as the pattern said.  Maybe my head is smaller than I think it is.  Naaah.  I probably just crocheted looser and with thinner yarn than the sample. 

This pattern is worked in rows, not in the round.  So it was really easy to adjust for my head size.  If I had been working the headband in the round I wouldn't have discovered it would be too big until several rows, and I would have had to restart the whole thing.  When I realized the headband was too big, I just undid a few rows and whip stitched the band together.

Blockette says she wants one now.  I'll have to make the band narrower if I get around to making her one.  I'd say I'd have to make the foundation chain 8 stitches instead of 14 in the tutorial.

I'm so proud of this ear warmer.  It's absolutely perfect for what I need it for.  On really cold days I have the top edge of it go down under my glasses, just above my eyes.  That way, with a scarf wrapped around my mouth and nose, the only thing exposed to the cold wind are my eyes.  It's perfect! 

p.s.  Blockette was my wonderful photographer for this lovely little photo shoot. She had lots of fun, and even "styled" my hair for the last picture so it had pretty curls instead of a mat of nargles in the back.