Cute Knitted Ear Warmer from Tuff Puff Super Bulky Yarn

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I did some gift knitting this year for Knit the Rainbow so I ordered a few balls of Knit Picks Tuff Puff, which is a single-ply super bulky yarn that makes extra warm winter gear and knits up fast.  I wanted to make some cheery knits to contribute so I knew I had to knit up one of these appliqued ear warmers. (I wear my Head Hugger all winter so I was excited to make another one to pass along!)

You can find this pattern in the classic knitting book, Stitch ‘n Bitch Nation.  It’s an old book so you can pick up a used copy pretty cheap at Powell’s or on eBay.  The pattern calls for bulky yarn but it was easy to modify to work with the super bulky yarn: I just used US 10.5 needles and stopped the increases when I had 14 stitches on my needles.  This made a nice dense fabric that will block out the wind and keep your ears really warm.  The only issue I ran into was that I couldn’t do the flower applique out of the super-bulky yarn. So I had to dig into my stash to find a bulky weight yarn for that part. I used some pretty Knit Picks Shine Sport to make the leaves and I crocheted a little circle out of scrap fingering weight yarn to sit at the center of the flower instead of embroidering on stamens like in the pattern sample.

yarn details

Knit Picks Tuff Puff in Marina
Super Bulky Weight
100% Wool
Hand Wash Cold & Dry Flat
100 g/ 44 yd skein
Purchased in July 2022 (on sale!)

Knit Picks Shine Sport in Green Apple
Sport Weight
60% Cotton, 40% Rayon
50 g / 110 yd
Misc. bits of the white bulky and the pink fingering weight yarns…

project details

pattern: “Head Huggers” by MK Carroll
needles: US size 10.5 for the ear warmer, size 8 for the flower and size 6 for the leaves – all from my interchangeable circular needle set; size C crochet hook for the flower center
yarn used: 44 yards of Tuff Puff (took the whole ball), small amounts of the other yarns
duration: August – September 2022