OK...Final Descision This Time...Really...

All right, so for real this time, I know what I'm making for the Knitting Olympics this year. It's super practical, and going to be AMAZING!!!! It's challenging, takes skills that I'm not very good at yet in great quantities, which will force me into BECOMING good, and it's going to be something I will probably wear every chance I get.
It is a hat, but not just ANY hat! It is a hat knit out of THESE skeins of yarn.



(Yes, I took a picture of yarn on top of a stereo...so sue me).

The plan is simple (unless you aren't a knitter, and then this explanation is going to make very little sense to you). The plan is, to knit the hat in a 1x1 fair isle pattern with these two yarns (or for the knitting impaired, I'm knitting the hat so that every other stitch is knit with the blue yarn and the other stitches are with the brown/purple/gold). I'll have some kind of ribbing at the bottom, probably 2x2 (2 knits, 2 purls, all the way). However, the problem is that I can't decide if it should be knit on an odd number of stitches, which would cause the yarn colors to alternate every row as well (So, the color would change in vertical and horizontal lines, thus making a checkerboard pattern), or I could knit it on an even number of stitches (The hat would have vertical lines of color). The thing is, an odd number would mean that one rib would be off by one (not a terribly dreadful problem really, or at least it's one I can ignore).
What do you guys think? Should the colors be checkerboarded or should they be in vertical stripes?

Today, I encountered a problem with the cardigan. I realized that the sleeve holes were WAY TOO FREAKING HUGE for the sleeves I had knit. I took the entire project to Ye Olde Yarn Shoppe, and they promptly told me what my problem was. It was NOT in fact that the sleeve holes were too big, but rather that the sleeves were not finished. I had apparently mistaken an entire set of instructions labeled "Top Shaping" that came just after the instructions for the sleeve as the instructions for shaping the top of the sweater and not the top of the sleeves. Apparently, once I rip out my cast off edge on the first sleeve, I can knit it up again correctly. YAY!
Second sleeve update; I am not done with the second sleeve, but it is coming along fast. I'd say I still have about a foot or perhaps a small bit less to go.

Thing to be grateful for today: My dear friend Jesse, who is moving away next Friday. I love her dearly.