Quick Tip

I finished knitting two more hats today.  Phew!  I'm just rolling along.  I thought of something to help me out and it just might help you too!  While sitting in my cafeteria at work today I had an epiphany.  If I leave a cast on tail that is as long as the section to be knitted before decreasing starts, then I don't have to keep reaching for my tape measure.  So for this hat pattern I needed to knit 9" before I began decreasing so I left a 9" long tail.  I'll use this tip for lots of knitting projects -- felted purses and sweaters to start.  No, it's not rocket science, just a simple tip to make knitting easier.

ETA:  Pictures might help explain what I was trying to convey.  Sometimes I think I'm writing a procedure perfectly clear but then review it and say 'what the heck?'  So here are a few pictures to help everyone along.  P.S. Thanks Kim T. for the kind feedback -- nice to hear you'll be using this in the future!

Here's the tail that was trimmed to 9" ~~

And here is the tale of the tape ~~

Finally, the hat showing 9" long, just before the decreasing began ~~