Hat Experiment

I'm getting all knitty wid it and am now attempting a toque with ear flaps by modifying and combining hat patterns. Why can't I just do it the way a pattern says??? Cuz they do stuff I don't want to do like sew it up the back or decreasing. I am lazy. Plus I have no attention span to speak of so doing any fancy patterny stuff like stripes or ribbing is really hard for me to get right.
So, I followed a pattern in Canadian Living for how to make the ear flaps (triangles on a stick!) and how to cast the hat on and add the earflaps. After that I have it on circular needles so I work it in the round (straight knitting..easy) and when its long eough to set on the head right I will cinch the top shut rather than the whole shaping, decreasing thing. We shall see. After a few false starts and ripping outs, I now have taken a photo of it thus far..a blob of knitting on circulars with longer bits on the sides (ear flaps). The first time I had it on the needles it was all backwards and I would have had to purl the whole thing. Now its right (so far) and I will post all "The Making" photos when its all done. I am working it in Bernat DenimStyle yarn. Its so soft and pleasant to work with. I give it a thumbs up.
Laundry is mostly caught up and I have class tonight so this afternoon is about homework. I really need to work on my verbs.