Double Happy Hat 2.0

About seven years ago, I made Boy 2 a hat. It was customized to his preferences - very soft yarn (he likes to touch Felici) but a simple pattern. In order to make it warm enough to count as a winter hat, I made two hats and attached them at the brim. This hat was/is completely reversible:

All these years later, the hat is decidedly too small (it always was a bit short). Boy 2 decided he was up for another one. We carefully perused the Felici sock yarn in my stash. Naturally, none was acceptable. So we placed an order. He chose Rose Garden and Seven Seas as his colorways:

This project came at a perfect time, when there are some opportunities to knit socially but very little brain power with which to think about knitting. I did some quick calculations to modify the pattern I made up last time, and cast on over Thanksgiving weekend. Despite a punishing schedule, these two hats were done before I got very used to working on them!

You can see that I began each hat with a provisional cast on. I think I may still have more to learn about this technique. After the cast on, I knit one row straight before beginning my twisted rib. But the stitches I picked up after removing the waste yarn are still very twisted. Maybe I'll try working one row plain knit, then one row regular rib, and THEN start the twisted rib? Can you see what I mean here?

It took me quite a while to get all these stitches onto needles. Once it was done, I popped one hat inside the other, like so:

Then I worked a 3-needle bindoff in purl. I used the blue color, so there's a hint of blue showing on the red side of the hat. (poor kid inherited my bad eyes)

Now he can wear it in red, or blue!

I bought 2 balls of each color, not being sure if I would need the second one or not. I didn't. The finished hat weighs 86.2 grams. Now I have another mismatched pair of skeins...