Hat 3/8/11-
Knit the swatch 3 times to get gauge- once at 5, 6, and finally I went all the way up to size 8 to get the gauge.

Started knitting the ribbing according to directions at size 8, frogged it and went down to size 7 because I didn’t want to mess up the size of the brim.

3/10/11
Finished the body of the hat- and it’s huge, but still fits to the shape of the noggin. Probably could have went down two needle sizes to get a snug fit.

3/15/11
Since finishing the body of the hat I started working on the mittens and have finished one- but it’s way too big. Not frogging it, but rather I will be using it as a model to work away from. Some of the revisions:

• Ribbing done in two sizes smaller, not just one.
• Omission of one pattern repeat.
• 4-6 stitches less on the thumb.

Moved on to the earflap out of frustration and am now frustrated with that. Ha!

3/17/11
Finished the hat! Just in time to give as a birthday gift. Unfortunately the gloves could not be added to this, but at least when given they’ll be better than they would have been had they been done as a rush job.

Gloves/Mittens 3/26/11
Completed the body of the gloves/mittens, just need to finish the thumbs and the flip-tops. However, this was not without equal woe as experienced with the hat. I knit two different gloves/mittens before I found an alteration that really worked. After deciding the real knitting only took about two days for the body.

Because the hat was relatively large, I decided to go one needle size down and maintain pattern as written, but that turned out to be way too tight.

Then, I chose to use the original needle size to get gauge (size 8) but that turned out to be huge and the thumb was awkward so I omitted a whole pattern repeat cut the thumb down some 6 (?) sts.

Additionally, instead of having the thumb be ribbed, I’m going to make it stockinette.

3/29/11
I have messed up on every single part of this project haha.

I don’t really like how the flip tops look and after having tried two different methods over that past few days I think I may just get rid of the tops all together.

But what am I going to do with all this yarn?! I’ve got a full skein of the mink heather and the evergreen, along with a considerable amount of the latter. The original Wonderland color that came with the kit, I turned into a hat. Still have a a little bit of that left too.

What to do?