In the Red Zone

If my Rhinebeck sweater were a football game, you could say I'm on the final drive toward the end zone. My first sleeve is complete, and my second sleeve is well under way. Here is your regularly scheduled update photo taken by a 9-year-old (hence the strange distortion of my head):

And here's a closer look at the finished bottom of the sleeve with the lower part of the body so that you can see the colorwork:

The sweater is clearly in need of a good blocking, so the colorwork will settle down a bit once it gets a good soak and be more prominent and not quite so wrinkly.

I managed to finish the first of Rainbow's socks over the weekend and start the second, so I allowed myself to cast on a new project Sunday night, a baby hat for charity. Unsurprisingly, it was done by yesterday.

Pattern: Greenleaf Baby Hat by Evelyn Uyemura
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in Green Apple/color 802, 0.48 skeins
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm)
Started/Completed: September 22/September 23
Mods: increased stitch count, adapted leaf to be double sided (see below)

This hat pattern is written for Aran weight yarn and worked at a gauge of 4 stitches per inch. 220 Superwash is more of DK, so I worked it at a gauge of 6 stitches per inch and increased the stitch count to compensate. I worked the body of the hat a little longer than specified and did additional decrease rounds to get to the number needed for the leaf. When it came to leaf, though, I went quite a bit off book. As written, the leaf is worked in stockinette, so there's a clear right side and wrong side. I decided I wanted my leaf to look the same on both sides, so I continued to work it in the round. I also made it a little longer (I added a couple of rounds in the middle, between the increases and decreases) and changed the decreases to centered double decreases. I really like how it came out.

Rainbow has suggested that this would be extra adorable if the main part of the hat was worked in red to look like an apple, and I think I might just do that the next time I make this hat, if I can find some apple-appropriate yarn in my stash. I've still got plenty of green and could certainly make another one of these if I wanted to as well! It was a quick and satisfying knit and a nice break from sleeve knitting. Now, though, it's back to the sweater -- I'm determined to finish it this week!