A Perfect Gauge (hopefully)

Now that the camo mittens are all done, I'm onto the hat I've been wanting to make for Kerri. It's called Army Girl Earflap hat from Interweave Knits (winter 2005) about 1/2 way down the page on the link. When I was out visiting her in October, she saw a knitted hat that her hubby's bestfriend had and she asked me if I could make her a similar one and I've been on the hunt for a pattern ever since. Now I've finally found one that's perfect (with a little help from my MIL Rhonda) and I'm itching to get started on it. I'm taking a short hiatus from socks because I need to mail this gift out (along with Christmas stuff for Kerri & family) before it's too warm for knit wear. So, Bex...if your reading, I have to pause on your socks temporarily. Becky will eventually be receiving a pair of Emobssed Leaves socks (also a pattern from Interweave Knits), more on the socks a little later and back to the hat!! Keeping with the "Knit from your Stash" project, I took two odd balls of yarn from my stash, one was worsted and one was fingering weight, I thought I'd try and get a tweedy look and put them together, did up a gauge (16sts and 25 rows = 4")and sucess, it seemed to work. I don't always do a swatch before I start a project, but I thought this time I didn't really want to be effing around and I really want to use up my stash yarn, because alot of it was stuff that I got or that was given to me when I first started knitting (almost 3 years ago) and I would love to buy something nice for myself when it's all gone. :)

Today I started the hat. I've done about 10 rows on the pattern and something doesn't seem right. I'm going to rip it all out and try it again tomorrow. I just can't seem to maintain the ribbed garter stitch pattern (R.S. k1, p1, WS purl). I think the m1's are throwing me off, not too sure. I may have to consult a professional knitter about this.....