Let's not do the twist

I'm well aware that my patience has been wearing thin and I've been tired a lot lately. That's not a good formula for knitting when mistakes are being made. (One could make the argument that that's why mistakes are being made.)

Since I was dissatisfied with the newly learned cable cast on that would have taken me twenty years to finish for the hat, I ripped it out and decided to give it one more shot before reverting to the long tail cast on. Funny how actually following the advice I was given made it go much smoother. (I was pulling the last stitch too tight before putting the needle between the two newest cast on stitches.) Can't say I was lightning fast casting on 103 stitches, but I was quicker than my super slo-mo knitting last night. Not being gassed probably helped.

Of course, I've been here before with a cast on row. The bigger trick was joining the blasted thing in the round without twisting the stitches. I laid the needles flat as instructed and made sure that nothing was corkscrewing on me. I joined the first and last stitch and made my way around the first time.

Everything looked good after one round, even if I had to purl the last two together because I'd cast on one too many stitches. The second round was progressing fine, but then I had to deal with the needle and cable doing something funky. The working yarn somehow got wrapped around the cable. As I was untangling it, I accidentally slipped nine stitches off the needle. By now I know that the knitting can still be salvaged. I tracked down a smaller needle, slipped it into the stitches, and was back on my way.

I still had to be careful to make sure that the stitches weren't twisting on the second round. So far, so good. If memory serves, once I have a few rows on the needles, I won't have to be as diligent about this. The cable will likely be tamed by then.

I haven't a clue why I didn't face this problem for most, if not all, of the hats I made as Christmas gifts a year ago. I suppose the good thing is now I've had it explained to me and can identify it on my own. I've learned a new cast on in the process too. It's all good now, right?