TL;dr cut out excess yarn from some color changes to keep transitions all around the same length. Spit-joined cuts. Larger needles. Rainbow is dominant.

I have had the worst luck with gauge and Chroma yarn. 2.5 seems to be providing a reasonable ribbing gauge. I am using sock DPN needles because my 30 inch small gauge wire is used up on another hat project so can’t use traveling loop at the moment. Since the 2.5 gauge seems okay to start the brim will probably order another 30 inch cord to do traveling loop for colorwork portion of hat.

Unitentionally cast on in white, instead of CC. Oh well, rolling with it.

3-13 So far simple enough. MC White in right hand, CC rainbow in left. Lever and Continental. Would have preferred a tighter ribbing but if I did tighter for looks would have to adjust pattern so ribbing would fit over my head. I put the ribbing on waste yarn to ensure it would fit on my 21.5 inch head, and it does, although I think ribbing highlights the flaws of the thick and thin spinning.

I hate thick thin and single spun yarns, I have discovered, but I am doing this project anyway because of my cold sheep commitment for 2015. While I love these colors, I would recommend a normally spun yarn for colorwork for even stitches. Wish they made these long transition colorways in Palette yarn.

3-15 so far it’s going okay. Huge lesson in learning to let go of perfect stitch tension because it’s impossible with two thick and thin yarns used in concert. I can execute clean colorwork, damn it! (Sigh) row 17. May cut out some green as it has a larger segment than the previous sections. Or maybe not? If I don’t may have enough to do another project. Hmm. Do I value my cold sheep so desperately or do I scarifice some yarn to get more even transitions of color. Most certainly going to need to in the crown.

3-27 had to take some time off, muscle strain in right hand. Did cut out some green yarn to speed up the transition. Want to try and keep the transitions evenly up the hat. Spit joined the green together and it’s perfect. Not sure how much I will have to trim out of the ball in the crown to keep it transitioning as much as I want, but with spit join its not a big effort to do it.

4-1 around line 46 in decreases starting to cut out big chunks of yarn to speed up transitions in orange. Trying to keep each few lines (3 to 4) a transition to a new shade. Decided I’d rather sacrifice some (okay, a lot of) yarn rather than have long chunks of color.

4-2 switched to DPN, having some trouble with gauge around the decreases. Hoping switching to DPN from Traveling Loop helps going forward. Lots of stitch adjusting on previous rows.

4-3 need to buy a round plate to block this hat! My plates are square…

4-23 finally blocking hat after soaking in Reddit Soak.

4-24 Done!