This is two views of the same thing.

I’m taking the stitches freed up by my provisional cast on (on a metal needle) and the live stitches already on my needles (on a metal needle) and interspersing them (on the wooden needle). I’ve got two different kinds of needles just to more easily see what’s going on, you for sure don’t have to do it that way.

It’s just one from the live stitches, one from the cast on, one from the live stitches, one from the cast on, back and forth around the whole hat.

And you don’t even actually have to do this. You can just hold the two needles next to each other and knit off both at the same time. But that felt wrestling with one to many octopuses* at once, and I know my limitations. So I took a minute to get my stitches all arranged and making sure everything is smooth and tidy before sealing everything up.

If you, as a much cooler and more coordinated person, want to join battle with the octopuses, you totally can!

* Anyone about to come at me for my pluralization of octopus will get a three minute lecture on words and how not to be a jerk about them. And while I absolutely revel in a chance to say octopodes, and pronounce it correctly while we’re at it, this is not the day for that. But you can go read what the lovely folks at merriam webster had to say about the word over here if you want to know more.