baby bear hat

Yesterday when I was making the pumpkin hat I found this pattern on the same site.  It's supposed to be a monkey hat but I made the ears a bit different and am calling it a bear hat.  It took a really long time to make this hat but I shouldn't have been surprised since it was crocheted with a size H hook and the whole thing is sc.  Ugh!  Such a different from the super fast pumpkin hat from yesterday.  I used six strands of yarn for the ties instead of the three that it recommended.  Also I'm not a fan of starting with the "magic loop" so I always crochet a little loop and then use that instead.  And I also don't like crocheting in the round so I join my rounds and end up with a seam.  I don't like using a marker and counting so much.  I made a couple of bear hats before but sold both of them so it's nice to have another one.  I'll save this for the baby.  It'll be a great prop for pictures and also for photos.  I saw one blog where the mom took a picture of the baby with the same bear every week to see how the baby was growing.  It was really cute.  Maybe I'll do something like that with the hat and one of my favorite stuffed bears.  Living in colder weather has made me realize that earflaps are pretty much a necessity.  I'm thinking about adding earflaps to a couple of hats that I often wear.  In AZ I enjoyed having a hat to wear but didn't need the extra protection that ear flaps would offer.  Worked on this in between dishes and laundry this afternoon which reminds me that I need to put the last load in the dryer so I'd better be off to do that.  Just wanted to share my latest creation.