Gauntlet: Thrown

I love a challenge.

Ok...that's not entirely true. I will admit, I will knowingly wander outside my knitting comfort zone, but there are times it would seem that my knitting projects are purposefully trying to break my spirit.

Yesterday, I gleefully wrote about my progress with the Anemoi hat. After posting, I knit a little here and a little there and before I knew it, I was working the crown decreases.
JOY!

We all know the moment of anticipation when first try on one of our projects. And that moment always comes at a point where success is close within our grasp and to turn back would be folly.

Anemoi and I crossed that threshold at about 9pm last night.
Upon putting Anemoi on my head, I realized I had two problems.
1. It was too big.
2. I love the pattern, but think that it will be entirely too busy for my boss.

So with a heavy heart, I removed Anemoi from my head, returned it to its bag and considered its fate.

As for the size issue, I realize now my gauge was off. In trying to keep my floats loose, my gauge got a little crazy. I should have dropped down to a size 1 needle. I considered washing it in some hot water, but this is a superwash wool, so that option isn't an option. As the brim of the hat is well below my eyebrows, I could frog back the pattern and shorten the crown. I could also rip out the entire thing and start over with less stitches. As it took me only a week to get to this point, starting over is actually a viable choice. But that doesn't take into account issue #2.

I love this hat pattern, but somehow, I think this hat and matching gloves may be too much for the boss. I'm considering a plain hat with maybe just a little colorwork.

So...what to do? I think I'm going to finish off the hat tonight then start on the mittens. I'll definitely be more diligent about staying on gauge. Once that's done, I'll take stock of my leftover yarn and find a hat solution. As the hat has only used up less than 1 skein of each color, I'm confident I can get the mittens and a second hat from the unused 4 balls [two of each color].

This project is really testing me... and in the Olympic spirit, I shall rise to meet that challenge head on.