An ear warmer is a simple, useful cold-weather band: it sits over your ears, leaves the top of your head open, and can be a good project when you want something practical without making a full hat. This roundup brings together four free ear warmer patterns from two designers, chosen so you can compare them by yarn weight, texture, and size range before you start.
Each section below gives a short description, the materials listed on the designer’s own page, and a button that leads directly to that designer’s full pattern. No pattern instructions are copied here — follow the link to the designer’s page for the complete pattern, including any video tutorial they provide.
Start with yarn weight, because that is the clearest difference between these four patterns:
- For a lighter band for cool days, look at the lightweight Haylee ear warmer.
- For a thicker, chunkier band, look at the super bulky Haylee ear warmer.
- For texture in a medium-weight yarn, look at the puff stitch ear warmer.
- For a colourwork motif in a single size, look at the pumpkin ear warmer.
In every case, measure as you go. Both Haylee patterns are worked as rectangles and finished as bands, and their sources stress measuring the rectangle against your head circumference rather than relying on stitch counts alone.
1. Puff Stitch Ear Warmer — Loops & Love Crochet
A textured ear warmer in worsted-weight yarn, built around puff stitches combined with front and back post double crochet and long single crochet. The source page also links video tutorials for the puff stitches, long single crochet, foundation double crochet, and front/back post double crochet, which makes it a useful choice if you want to practise those stitches on a small, wearable project. It is made in joining rounds, with two colours carried through the colour-change sections described on the source page.
- Designer: Loops & Love Crochet
- Pattern: Free on the designer’s blog; an ad-free printable PDF is also sold (price not stated on the blog page checked)
- Yarn: Worsted-weight yarn. The designer’s examples are Caron Simply Soft and Red Heart Soft, with Caron Simply Soft Party for a sparkle version.
- Hook: 5.5 mm, with a note on the source page to go down to 5.0 mm if you crochet loosely
- Other materials: Yarn needle
- Sizes: Toddler, Child, Teen/Small Adult, Adult
- Finished height: Approximately 3 inches, as stated on the source page
- Gauge on source page: 7 double crochet stitches = 2 inches
- Difficulty: Not labelled on the blog page checked, so no difficulty rating is given here. Check the puff-stitch and post-stitch sections on the source page first.
2. Pumpkin Ear Warmer — Loops & Love Crochet
A tapestry-crochet ear warmer in which pumpkin shapes are formed by changing colours within single crochet rounds. It is the most specific choice in this roundup: it is written for one child size, using a small number of colours, so it suits a reader who wants a seasonal motif and is comfortable following colour changes and carrying the inactive yarn behind the work, as described on the source page.
- Designer: Loops & Love Crochet
- Pattern: Free on the designer’s blog; an ad-free printable PDF is also sold (price not stated on the blog page checked)
- Yarn: Worsted-weight yarn. The designer’s examples are Caron Simply Soft in Black (or Grape for the purple version), Mango, and Limelight.
- Hook: 5.5 mm, with a note on the source page to go down to 5.0 mm if you crochet loosely
- Other materials: Yarn needle
- Sizes: Child size only, for a 19–20 inch head circumference. The source page gives guidance on enlarging it, with a warning to keep the colour changes in the correct places so the pumpkin shapes still work.
- Construction: Tapestry crochet in single crochet, worked in joined rounds, with colour changes carried under the stitches
- Difficulty: No formal difficulty label is used here. The source describes it as a pretty simple design with a few colours, and as a good starting point for tapestry crochet.
3. Super Bulky Haylee Earwarmer — Cre8tion Crochet
The chunky version of Cre8tion Crochet’s Haylee ear warmer: a simple rectangle in half double crochet, worked in rows and then joined into a band. Because it uses super bulky yarn, it is the thickest fabric in this roundup, and the source page notes that you can measure the width after just a few rows to check the finished height of the band. The source also discusses yarn choice for wind protection, favouring animal fibres such as wool or alpaca blends for cold, windy days, while noting that acrylic yarns also work.
- Designer: Cre8tion Crochet
- Pattern: Free on the designer’s blog; a printer-friendly ad-free PDF is also sold (price not stated on the blog page checked)
- Yarn: Super Bulky #6 weight yarn, 50–75 yards depending on size, as listed on the source page. The designer’s example is Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick & Quick in Barley.
- Hook: 9 mm (M13)
- Other materials: Tapestry needle; soft tape measure
- Sizes: Toddler to Adult Large, as listed on the source page
- Construction: Rectangle in half double crochet, joined into a band. The source says gauge is not terribly essential, but measuring the piece as you go is recommended.
- Difficulty: Described on the source page as easy and beginner friendly.
4. Lightweight Haylee Earwarmer — Cre8tion Crochet
The lightweight version of the same Haylee design: again a rectangle in simple half double crochet, finished as a band, but worked in a lighter yarn for cool days rather than cold, windy ones. The source page itself draws this contrast, suggesting a cotton blend for late spring into early fall, a wool blend for cool winter days, and the worsted or chunky Haylee versions for cold and windy days. It is a good comparison point for the super bulky version above, because the construction is the same idea at a very different weight.
- Designer: Cre8tion Crochet
- Pattern: Free on the designer’s blog; a printer-friendly ad-free PDF is also sold (price not stated on the blog page checked)
- Yarn: Lightweight #3 / DK yarn as described on the page. The designer’s example is Araucania Huasco DK Kettle Dyed Yarn in Jade.
- Hook: 4.25 mm (G6)
- Other materials: Tapestry needle; soft tape measure
- Yarn amount: 75–110 yards depending on size, as listed on the source page
- Sizes: Toddler to Adult Large, as listed on the source page
- Construction: Rectangle in simple half double crochet, finished as a band, measuring as you go
- Difficulty: Described on the source page as easy and beginner friendly.
Which ear warmer should you choose?
Choose by weight first, then by texture and size range. The two Haylee patterns share the same rectangle-then-band idea, so the difference between them is mainly how thick and warm the finished band will be. The two Loops & Love patterns both use worsted-weight yarn, but they differ in stitch and purpose: one is a textured, multi-size band, and the other is a single-size colourwork motif.
- Lightest band, for cool days: Lightweight Haylee Earwarmer — Cre8tion Crochet. Lightweight #3 / DK yarn, 4.25 mm hook, toddler to adult large.
- Thickest band, for cold days: Super Bulky Haylee Earwarmer — Cre8tion Crochet. Super Bulky #6 yarn, 9 mm hook, toddler to adult large.
- Most textured, in a medium yarn: Puff Stitch Ear Warmer — Loops & Love Crochet. Worsted-weight yarn, 5.5 mm hook, toddler to adult, with puff and post stitches and video tutorials on the source page.
- Colourwork motif, one size: Pumpkin Ear Warmer — Loops & Love Crochet. Worsted-weight yarn, 5.5 mm hook, child size only (19–20 inch head circumference), tapestry crochet in single crochet.
No completion time is given in this roundup. The sources include designer-specific time reports for individual sizes, but those are not guarantees for another maker, yarn, or tension, so they have not been used as a comparison point here.
Sources and credits
All patterns below are by the designers named. Follow each link to the designer’s own page for the full pattern. No pattern instructions are reproduced in this roundup.
- Puff Stitch Ear Warmer, by Loops & Love Crochet: https://www.loopsandlovecrochet.com/2019/12/16/puff-stitch-ear-warmer-free-crochet-pattern/
- Pumpkin Ear Warmer, by Loops & Love Crochet: https://www.loopsandlovecrochet.com/2019/10/07/pumpkin-ear-warmer-free-crochet-pattern/
- Super Bulky Haylee Earwarmer, by Cre8tion Crochet: https://cre8tioncrochet.com/2025/02/super-bulky-half-double-crochet-ear-warmer-free-pattern.html
- Lightweight Haylee Earwarmer, by Cre8tion Crochet: https://cre8tioncrochet.com/2024/09/easy-lightweight-crochet-ear-warmer-free-pattern.html
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