Awaiting snowflakes

I got this pattern (Ravelry link) during the Ravelympics. At the time I didn't think I would ever knit it, but I downloaded it anyway, because it would become a paid pattern after the Ravelympics had passed. And now that I have caught the hat bug, into the queue it went!

I am pleased with the result; it is the first stranded knitting object I did, and I didn't have (too many) issues with it.
The only thing I would change is that I wouldn't do it in XL size (I was afraid that my tension would make it extra small)

Modeling it here is the silicone bundt mold. I didn't have to stretch it to get it on.

I do have an issue about the yarn. The red is Unitas Ana, which behaved wonderfully, as usual, but the white (Unitas Lucija) was a bit of a pain; it's very non-smooth (I would say fluffy, but that has a positive connotation) so you can see that it created a slight halo around the snowflakes. Maybe I should have chosen a different yarn, but that's what I had in my stash.

My floats were somewhat bigger at the beginning, since I didn't have access to the internet at the time I got to colourwork and was wrapping them by moving the skeins one over the other. You can see that it improved after a couple of rows.

I did have a couple of problems (entirely my fault) where I moved the pattern by one stitch so I had to rip everything out. 

Another thing I learned during this is that I'm knitting the wrong way, so k2tog and ssk do not look like they are supposed to. (As far as I have been able to figure out, I'm knitting continental, but combined? or something like that). So instead of the ssk, I did k2tog like I normally do, and then did the k2tog with the throwing so I would get the different slants. And I think that worked: 

Since taking the pictures I have washed it so the earflaps are now flat. 

Going to my darling brother as soon as I attach the pom pom on top.