This mask is for Yana, who is going on a plane trip in June and needs something to block out all the light while she travels.

I’m going to use my notes from my Rainforest eye mask to make it the right size, since the DK is a thinner weight than what the pattern calls for. I think I’ll also need to make the matching back with a wee bit of padding in order to ensure that she doesn’t have any annoying light peeking through the stitches.

Cast on 21 stitches for the mask with a border four stitches deep of seed stitch. For the backing I cast on 17 stitches.

Argh, I’ve had all sorts of problems with this little mask. Mainly my issue is how to attach the ribbons and such. I actually keep picking it up to work on it, getting frustrated, setting it down for a day or so, and then, in the middle of the night, suddenly coming up with solutions and not being able to work on it right then!

Anyways, my biggest issue was that I wanted to sew the ribbon on first and then hide the ends between the mask and the backing. But when I did that, I realized that I then had no way to seam that part of the mask and the backing together because the ribbon was in the way of the yarn. I realized as I fell to sleep that the solution was to sew that part together with thread - backing to ribbon to mask. Whew. Now I can finish this project and get it in the mail.

Seaming took me about three hours. It was tortuous. Why did I think that adding a mask backing to this pattern was a good idea? Sigh. Thank God it’s done. And it looks beautiful too, so I’m happy. Yana absolutely loved it when she got it, which makes me super happy, because one can never be quite sure what they’ve made is going to suit another. I’ve thrilled that this was a successful sleep mask for her!