Needles:
#6 (4.0 mm) for the body
#9 (5.5 mm) for the bind off

Instead of two 40” circs, will attempt to begin with magic loop on a 60” needle and switch to a single circ in the round when comfortable to do so.

Cast On:
Judy Becker’s video was very helpful for her own JMCO method, especially in terms of stitch orientation on the needles, and also for how to proceed with the 2 circs method after the cast on. But since I was going to do magic loop, I followed Roxanne Richardson’s video instead. I found hers easier to follow for the very beginning of the cast on, and also for the beginning of the first round of knitting, as it didn’t involve any fancy twists of the yarn that I had trouble replicating in many of the other videos I watched.

One thing that I did do differently than the video was to knit the very first cast on stitch, the one that was simply draped over the bottom needle, through the back loop, as this eliminated that little purl bump that I was getting on the right side in that spot when I practiced. This first cast on stitch was the last stitch on needle 1.

Cast on 294 stitches to finish 10” shorter (at approximately 75” instead of 85”).
This makes 24 reps instead of 28.

Various ways to calculate how much to allow for the cast on tail:
-294 sts at 1” per st + 6” tail = 300”, or 8 yds plus 1 foot for the cast on allowance.
-294 sts at 12 sts/2.5” gauge = 61.25” long. At 3 times the length for the cast on allowance = 183.75”, plus 6” tail = 189.75” or 5.27 yds..
-294 sts at 7 inches per 10 stitches (measured with scrap yarn) = 205.8” plus 6” tail = 211.8” or 5.9 yards

I don’t know which one is right, but I don’t want to run out and have to start over. I think that the inch per stitch is probably too much, but the 3 times the length might not be enough. The 7” per 10 sts is probably close, but I’d like to leave extra for good measure, so will go somewhere between that and the highest estimate. Will allow 7 yards and hope for the best!

Note that I measured very generously, so there was probably more than 7 yds to begin, but I had 2.5 yds remaining, so I definitely could have started with less.

At round 5.5, I started switching out needles and methods to try to get comfortable, as the 60” wasn’t quite long enough for magic loop and, because it was connected at the bottom, there just wasn’t enough fabric to work in the round. I was spending way too much time fighting with the needles, but no matter what I tried, I just could not get comfortable.

Latest attempt: At round 8.5, I switched to a 90” needle (connected 50” & 30” cables with 5” tips) to try for magic loop again.

At around Jan 20 or so, after completing round 10, this went into time out for about a month. It was just too frustrating, and I wanted to finish my Continuous Mitered Square Blanket. Then I wanted to use the Cascade Nifty Cotton that I had just bought, so that it would still be available if I needed more. So I continued the time out while I started and then ripped out the French Press Cardi, and then knit the Florence Cardigan instead (and yes, I did need another skein).

Picked this back up on Feb 19. I found that it helped to pull out a magic loop on either side of the short ends when I got to those points, in order to have the needles angled properly to be able to knit. I didn’t need to do this on the long sides but I did need to stop every so often to move the stitches along. It’s definitely more oblong than circular, and the stitches tend to collect at the short ends, needing to be helped along the bend. Once I got into a groove with this, I was finally able to settle in and begin to enjoy this knit. The yarn is really lovely.

After a while, at about round 23, I discovered that I didn’t need to pull out a magic loop at either end anymore, in order to round the corners. But it was still very oblong, and the stitches needed to be manually moved around.

Attached second skein of Navy about halfway through needle 2 of round 17.
Attached second skein of Clarity about halfway through needle 1 of round 42.

SK2P was not listed in the abbreviations. I performed them as follows:
Slip 1 knitwise, k2tog, pass the slipped stitch over.

I carried the yarn rather than cutting it at the color changes, except for those that were 5 rows or more.

Bind Off:
Bound off with the larger needle on the wrong side, using k2tog tbl, because that’s stretchier than the standard bind off, and I prefer the way it looks.

I didn’t do the yarn over bind offs in the chart, because I wasn’t sure how to accomplish them with the k2tog tbl technique. I suppose I could have done the elastic bind off that puts a regular knit stitch between the k2tog tbl’s at those points in the chart, but I didn’t think of that until I was almost halfway through. I was kind of confused by the placement of them anyway. The written instructions say that they’re in order to give the tops of the points some extra yarn so that they can be blocked extra pointy. But in the chart, they’re placed at the valleys rather than at the peaks. Is that an error in the pattern? Anyway, I gambled that it would be okay without them. Also, the bind off took so long as it was. Trying to do a different stitch at each peak seemed like it would be easy to forget, and would slow me down. The k2togtbl bind off was stretchy enough, and I was able to get decent points without them.

Approximate measurements, stretched on the blocking board:
16” – 17” wide (shorter on the short ends, wider in the middle) x 76” long.