A Knitting Contest with Myself

I started my second Mystic Spiral hat on Monday night.  It was going really well, and seemingly quickly - it starts with 8 stitches and then you increase from there, so you cross off the first rounds really fast since they don't have many stitches.  Since this will be for an upcoming class, I wanted to get it to The Spinning Room as quickly as possible.  So I decided to have a contest with myself to see if I could finish it and block it in time to bring it to knit night tonight.  Wednesday. Two days later.
Here is what I had by yesterday, mid-naptime:

I knitted all during nap-time, then when I got home and then I finished binding off during Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood this morning! Ran home this afternoon after babysitting, put it in a quick bath and got it ready to block using my color coordinated fiesta plate:

and blocked/dried it using my impatient method:

Luckily, this yarn is a superwash merino, so I could use a little heat in the dryer and it was ready to go by the time I left for knit night.  Then, got a nice picture of it on a head at the shop:

Speaking of the yarn I used.... love. Love. LOVE. IT.  This is Kestrel,100% superwash merino wool, handpainted by Liz at Peace Love & YARN in the Still Waters Run Deep colorway.  Merino is so nice to work with because it is so soft, and I just love Liz's color combinations.  You should get some.  The Spinning Room sells it.

At any rate... mission accomplished.  Contest done.  I win.  Blue ribbon for me.