A breeze and a challenge

I have two projects to share today.

The first is an easy, breezy handknit - my 4th sockhead hat. This is a super simple hat made from sock yarn. I cast this on before we took a rather spontaneous trip to Universal Studios last month, as I needed something small, portable, and easy to knit on the plane, in lines, at the pool, etc. This pattern is perfect for that! I cast on 136 stitches on a 2.5 mm 16" needle and worked 2x2 rib for about 4". Then switch to a 3.0 mm needle and keep going. At some point, work decreases. This yarn started to pool in the crown decrease area, but it's kinda fun and I don't mind. Poolers gonna pool.

This can be my donation for Knitters' Day Out, which is coming up in about a month. (Thank you to Boy 2, who kindly agreed to model.)

I need another autopilot project for work this week, so I had my head in the sock yarn cabinet last night. S1 commented that we may be at a physical storage limit for handknit socks in this house, strongly hinting that I NOT make socks for any of us who live here! So I cast on for another Sockhead. My friend Kris is always collecting warm hats, mittens, and scarves for children at a school near her workplace in downtown Baltimore, so I can pass that hat along to her.

The second project is more challenging. I finished the Sockhead on Thursday during the day, and found myself in the untenable position of not having a project that was suitable to work on during Knit Night that evening (the Sempervirens sweater - with my music stand chart setup - is not quite right for Knit Night). I grabbed the basket of yarn I got in Scotland and found my Joy Mitts kit. Perfect - fingerless mitts are so simple, right?

WRONG. This pattern starts with the most intimidating instructions I have seen in a while. I really did not understand them. Provisional cast on, fine. Folded hem, okay... that's basically a tubular cast on. But then intarsia AND double knitting at the same time? Huh?!?? (this happens in the little flag at the very edge of the cuff)

I stuck with the pattern and worked one line at a time, and I ended up getting the hang of it. My only real complaint about the pattern is that it is really unclear when to introduce the second color of the flag. As a result, my first attempt ended up with too much of the red stripe. See what I mean?

Reader, I ripped it out and started again. I took a photo during the ripping out - you can really see how the double knitting is worked in the flag area:

Here is the completed cuff:

And here is what it looks like on the inside:

Now I have two knitting projects competing for my time at home (these and the giant fingering weight sweater), so progress may be slow, but it certainly is a joyful knit.