These new techniques were necessary for the making of the gorgeous Gretel beret.  I don’t have pictures of the beret that I knit (it was gifted immediately upon finishing), but imagine this pretty cabled beret knit up in this:

It’s Blue Sky Alpacas Dyed Organic Cotton.  So pretty.  So soft.

Okay, so onto the new techniques.  The first is the Tubular Cast On.  Now, I totally avoid anything that requires me to use scrap yarn and remove it later.  I e-hat that.  It seems like a waste of time, to me.  Evidently, I’m not the only one, because Ysolda, the designer of the Gretel beret has an awesome tutorial for doing a Tubular Cast-On without the use of heinous scrap yarn.  Hereit is.   Thank you, Ysolda…for the pattern and the tutorial.

Next, we have the technique of cabling without a cable needle.  I have been aware of this shortcut for awhile.  It just freaked me out that I would have to pull my needles out of my knitting and reinsert them.  There was just so much potential for disaster (translation:dropping stitches) that I couldn’t bring myself to even try it.  But, with so much cabling in this project – and having, successfully, tried the tubular cast-on – I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a shot.  Grumperina does such a great job walking you through it.  I was so dumb not to have tried this before.  Jeeze. 

I can’t say how much I appreciate the people who go to the trouble of documenting such techniques and making them available to those of us in need.  Anyway, my beret is off to you!