The Toddler called Jayne

My friends pestered me until I finally broke down and watched the Firefly series on Netflix, and now I'm with them. What a great show! I really wish there were more than the 14 measly episodes we got from Fox.
But now I'm in the know, so now I know exactly what a Jayne hat is, and how wonderfully awful it is, and I had the opportunity to make one.
My friend has a chance to go to a comic con, and Adam Baldwin will be there! Jayne! In person! And she just happens to have a toddler who has Jayne as her middle name. That's TWO reasons for a Jayne hat. I offered, she accepted, and I looked around for a pattern.
There are lots of Jayne hat patterns on Ravelry, but all of them were written for adults, or newborns, or even smaller. Nothing in the right size, and most of them used a bulky yarn instead of the worsted I'd gotten. So I figured I should go ahead and write my own. I've made ear flap hats before, but this one is extra easy because you aren't supposed to worry about fixing the flaps so they won't curl. They're supposed to!


Jayne Hat - Toddler size (approx 19" head)
Materials - Worsted Weight Yarn.  I used Vanna's Choice in brick, rust, and golden yellow.
16" circular needles, and DPNs in whatever size you get gauge (I used size 7)
Gauge: 9sts for 2" in the round
Abbreviations: SSK - slip 2 sts knitwise, place those back on the left needle, knit those 2 together
P2togTBL - Purl 2 together through the back loops


How to do it:
Using orange, cast on 76sts. Join to knit in the round.
K1P1 for 3 rounds.
Continue knitting in stockinette until orange stripe is ~3" high. Change to yellow yarn.
Continue knitting with yellow yarn until yellow stripe  is also about 3" high. 
K2tog all the way around. Change to DPNs when your circumference gets too small.
Keep on with the K2tog around and around until you have about 10sts left on your needles. Ma Cobb wasn't picky about the crown shaping.
Cut yarn and thread the tail through the 10 remaining sts. Snug it up and tie it down.


For ear flaps:
Ma Cobb wasn't picky about placement either. Your ears are a little ways to the back of your head. To figure out where the flaps go, lay the hat flat and mark the sides.

 

Then you'll pick up about 15 sts along the side for the ear flap. Just pick up one leg of the cast on edge, so the outside of the hat stays looking nice and cunning. 

 

Make sure you pick up 5 or so stitches on the front side of the marker, and the other 10 go toward the rear of the hat. By the way, you might want to mark which end is the front of your hat so you'll remember when you get around to knitting the other flap.

Knit in stockinette stitch until your flap is about 2" long, ending with a wrong side.

Decreases: Right side - K1, SSK, Knit until 3sts are left, K2tog, K1

Wrong side - P1, P2tog, Purl until 3 sts are left, P2togTBL, P1

Continue on in this fashion until you get to a purl row that only has 5sts left. P2tog, P1, P2togTBL

Bind off those last 3sts knitwise. Leave that string hanging and thread another one through the end there and tie it in a knot. Trim it up so it looks real nice.

Pompom

I'll assume you know what you're doing there. I figured since there wasn't as much red in the hat, there should be more red in the pompom. I used a cereal box flap to make mine, and wrapped a layer of red, a layer of yellow, a layer of orange, and then another layer of red. That seemed like enough, so I tied it, cut it, and gave it a hair cut.

 

I'll be sending this one on tomorrow so the toddler who needs it will get it in time. I have a feeling that my own little one is going to be looking for it, so I'll likely be making another one pretty soon.