Plans gone awry, and others to fruition

Some days I just can't brain because I have the dumb. I had yesterday off, with not plans other than to throw some clothes in the washer to fetch groceries sometime before bed. So tried to knit. I dropped a stitch on a hat, and so help me, was completely unable to pick it up and ladder it through with a crochet hook. I know how to pick up stitches with a crochet hook. It's plain stockinette. I did nothing but split the wool of each stitch. So frustrating.

Then I thought I could knit. I'm doing the fairly easy dragon scale pattern. I know that one starts on the bottom row of a pattern and moves to the left. I can read Hebrew and Arabic, I know about reading from right to left. Instead, while I read it in the correct direction, I started on the top row, rather than the bottom. Then I did the purl row right after it, so now I have to rows of 40 stitches each to tink. I decided I was not smart enough yesterday to fool around with sticks and string any more, so I just put it away. A perfectly good day for knitting gone to waste.

Something that did go well was that my friend Greg came over to learn how to do the decreases for his hat. I'd taught him to knit last month, gave him some yarn and needles for Christmas, and we sat down, he learned quickly, and I started him on a hat in the round. I did not tell him that knitting in the round is a little harder than knitting flat. What he didn't know did not kill him. So now he's made a really kick-ass hat. He came by to learn the decrease pattern, so we did that for a bit. His stitches are still a bit tight, and he had a bit of a challenge to knit two together, but he did it and eventually he'll relax his tension to something a little easier to manage.

This is the hat Greg made, with yarn I got for him. I cannot remember the brand, but I do know it is a superwash wool. His colour choices were black and red. He has decided he never wants to knit in black yarn ever again. And I don't blame him.