I was able to eliminate two steps:

1. Using my interchangeable needles I simply exchanged needle tips rather than slipping all stitches to the smaller size needle. (I also am using the magic loop method so I won’t need to change to DPNs later on).

2. As a Continental knitter I feel equally comfortable knitting and purling so rather than doing the wrap and turn I carried on in reverse stockinette.

This project took two attempts as I forgot row 9-12 the first time round and only realized when I wondered why the finished hat was too short…a good lesson to pay more attention.
One observation is that rows 1-4 and 9-12 when you ktbl are tighter than 5-8 and I wonder if next time I should try to knit rows 5-8 on smaller size 13 needles.