Starting Ian's Hat With Magic Cast-On

Using Judy Becker's Magic Cast-On** and her specific directions for starting a small circle, I cast on for Thorpe. This was cool to do because it creates no hole or loose stitches as can some other CO methods. Yay! Be sure NOT to ignore her directions for an even-number CO versus an odd-number (ask me why) -- it makes a difference. Basically, I did the regular Magic CO followed by a round of knitting double stranded with the tail. For the next round (the 1st increase round), knit each individual strand of the double loops rather than the typical increase method. For example, I CO 4 sts and knit all 4 sts double-stranded. When I did the next round, I got my stitch total up to 8 by knitting each individual strand. Next, I followed the pattern and did kfb into each stitch and ended up with 16 sts. **Note: I followed Cat Bordhi's video on YouTube which differs in that none of the CO stitches are twisted, so you have one less thing to worry about.

I'm on the twisted ribbing of my toe-up Monkeys. So... almost done! I plan on using a bind off that repeatedly uses a decrease -- there are a few variations, but the same basic idea.