Update: woohoo!

Good news! I restarted the hat mentioned at the bottom of this post. This time, I did two things differently right from the start:

One) I used point protectors at the end of every needle. The first time I started, I had naked needle ends, and my stitches fell off and probably added to the accidental twisting. I don't own point protectors, though, and I was really wishing I did. But then I remembered I still had some old hair elastics sitting around, from way back when I went through a hippie stage and made hemp hair extensions. Anyway, slap one of those on the ends of your needles, and those stitches are going nowhere. Okay, it's a really cheap solution, and I've already snapped one elastic, but it works for the time being.

Two) Clipping a couple stitches together at the DPN breaks did indeed work.

The only bad thing was that I had to cast on three times. Again. Because I seem to have issues with finding the correct length of yarn needed to cast on the required number of stitches. But I'm already three rows back in, so woohoo.

The bf was nice enough to take me out for some knitting shopping today, too. I went to a yarn shop, picked up a couple of circular needles, and drooled over all the pretty yarn that I wanted to snatch right up. I didn't have any specific ideas in mind, though, so I had to leave it at the needles. Same deal with yarn at Michaels, although I also got some great ideas for making some beaded stitch markers to possibly sell eventually. And then I almost bought a couple books at Barnes and Noble, but it was the same deal: nothing really stood out. Oh well, it saves me money.

I think I'm going to play Katamari now, though. Ah, randomness.