A hat for "Ginger"

My son has been watching me knit for 1 1/2 years now and finally he said, "Mom, could you make me a hat?" I told him, "Sure!" and asked him to describe to me what he wanted. He had very specific ideas as you can tell from the diagram below.

He raided my stash (actually yarn from my Mom's stash... thanks Grandma!) and I showed my son a photo from a pattern I've been eyeing... it's an ear flap hat pattern I found on a website called http://www.alarmingfemale.com/. She has a few free patterns on her blog. This is what we came up with.

I suppose I should explain "Ginger". While in middle school, my son's been nicknamed "Ginger". It actually comes from the cartoon "South Park" (the show LOOKS like something for kids since the characters are kids and it's a cartoon... but trust me... it's not... it's a terrible show... but I digress). On "South Park" people with red hair and freckles are called "Gingers". Instead of being offended or getting all bent out of shaped and feeling teased, my son embraced the nickname and he obviously really gets a kick out of it. He even had a New England Patriot's hoodie personalized with this football number and "Ginger" proudly displayed on the back. I think this says a lot about my son's sense of humor, his resilience, his attitude... all qualities I like about him. He's also got a really funny sense of humor. So that explains this hat!