Fuzzy Crochet Baby Bear Hat With Ear Flaps

I've been eyeing PDF tutorials on Etsy for a while now.  In particular, I really liked this one of a brown bear hat with ear flaps.  However, being the cheapskate that I am, I opted to look for a free tutorial instead.  

I wasn't able to find an exact tutorial for it, but I did find a tutorial for a very cute newborn baby hat with earflaps.  Other sizes are also available on that website.

I had some Baby Boucle yarn kicking around so I used that to get the fuzzy effect.  It makes the "magic loop" at the start harder, but it still works.

Instead of the crabstitch edging that they have in the tutorial, I did a single crochet as the edging because I wanted a braided look.  It looks really good, but I'm not sure if it added too much length to the height of the hat.  I'll guess I'll find out when I put it onto the baby.

 For the ears, I did the magic loop with 10 dc, but instead of joining the circle, I ch 3, turn, and 2 dc in each dc. Then I ch 1, turn, and sc decrease intermittently so that the ears curl inwards.  Then turn and continue to sc decrease until the gap is filled.

With the Baby Boucle yarn it doesn't have to be exact because you can't see all the separate stitches well.  Do the same for the other ear.  Finish off and tie the two loose ends together, then stuff into the ear.

Then pin onto the hat approximately centered with the ear flaps near the top of the hat.  Attach with a hidden stitch (needle and thread).

I have a limited number of dolls capable of modeling this hat for you to see... so, um, you get the white gorilla.  Hopefully your child will look better than this  :P

Happy Crocheting!