Lazy Saturday and Day 1 of the Knitting Olympics

I'm posting late today because Saturday mornings are for decompressing from the week, just sitting back, drinking cinnamon coffee and eating something sweet. Today it was a lemon bar. If anyone has an easy recipe for lemon bars I'd love to have it.
I cast on for the hat during the opening ceremonies but it was tough with the time difference. It was 9 pm here and by that time I'm usually ready to fall asleep, not count stitches.
There were 2 small glitches so far: I couldn't get one of the colors I needed so I had to substitute a color called chestnut for the one the pattern calls for which is chocolate. I hope it's close enough. Then I had to switch needles. I cast on a #6 Boye interchangeable needle but found out the cord is 24 inches not 16 and was too big. I have a Knitpicks set but it doesn't have a cord that small either. So I have to use my old Denise set. It's annoying because I hate to knit with plastic needles because they drag. I much prefer metal ones. But I'll just have to deal with it. I used a cable cast on. The long-tail cast on is faster but I usually cast on too tightly with it. I don't have to start the fair-isle part yet. First I have to do ribbing for 3 inches.
Here's the start of it:

The Knitting Olympics

I've decided to join the Knitting Olympics. Basically, you knit something challenging for you. You cast on during the opening ceremonies of the real Olympics and you have to finish it within 17 days by the time the torch is put out. The full rules are here on the Yarn Harlot's site: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2010/02/10/the_2010_knitting_olympics.html
I've decided to try this pattern from Knitpicks: http://www.knitpicks.com/cfpatterns/pattern_display.cfm?ID=50777220
Learn to Fair-Isle Hat and Mittens set. I've never done fair-isle before so it should be challenging.
I'll post pictures of my progress.