Zen Knitting

Its hard to knit a beanie on circular needles.Try straight needles

I use a 16 inch circular needle (size 10) and worsted weight yarn. I cast on 72 stitches and knit in stockinette for 8 inches. I then decrease every other stitch until I have about 8 stitches left on the needle (you will have to switch to double points size 10′s in order to finish. Then bind off the stitches. keep a long tail. Using a yarn needle, weave the tail through the remaining 8 stitches and pull tight. Knot the end and weave the end in on the wrong side, so it won’t show.
find the little dip in the cast on end where you started and count out 10 stitches. Using a straight needle (I just use one of the double points) pick up 20 stitches. Knit in stockinette stitch unitl 4 inches long, then decrease on each row (both knit and pearl rows) until you get down to one stitch. Finish it off leaving a 20 inch tail. Cut 6 strands of yarn each 40 inches long and pull them through the end of the ear flap. Hold the hat between your knees and braid the ends, knotting them at the end.
Now go back to the cast on stitches of the hat part and find that same little dip. count out 10 stitches from there and start your other ear flap. Make it the same as the first. I like to finish my hat with a pom pom on the top.
Hope that helped.