Ok, before we get to the cast on, let’s deal with the swatches from the yarns I’m not using. You’ll recall I said I was leaving them attached to the skein (not cutting the yarn at all). ⁠

When I was done with the swatches, I just unraveled them. But because I blocked the swatches, the yarn is super kinky.⁠

Don’t. Ever. Knit. With. Kinky. Yarn.⁠ It’s no fun, and it will wreck your tension. ⁠

If you need to use the yarn right away, you can wrap it back into a skein (a swift or the back of a chair is good for that), tie it off in four or five places, toss it in the sink and let it soak, gently press out the excess water, then hang it up to dry (ahem, somewhere that drips don’t matter, I usually do it in the shower).

If you don’t need to use if for a while, you can see if the kinks just sort of fall out on their own. That’s what I’m doing here. I wrapped the kinky yarn around the rest of the yarn and will leave it in the bathroom the next time I take a steamy shower and then toss it back in the stash.⁠

It will probably be relaxed again by the time I go to use it (especially the Berocco which was much more relaxed out of the swatch than the Hedgehog Fibres yarn was). If it’s not, I can always soak it as above. But this usually works if it sits in the stash for a while before I get around to using it. ⁠

Next, we cast on. But first, I’ve got a another little hat we need to talk about, so we’ll pause for that!