This was fun to knit. It was my first time doing cables. I followed this technique for knitting cables without a cable needle.

http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/faster-easier-cabling-...

I looked at various cabling methods and this seemed the easiest to remember. The first round of cables I couldn’t do it, and ended up using a cable needle to help rearrange the stitches. But I got the hang of it and by the end of the hat it was much easier.

I cast on 120 stitches, did 3 inches of 2x2 ribbing with size 6 needles, then changed to size 7 needles and did 6 pattern repeats, and changed the decrease section as many others have done. I omitted rows 8, 9, and 11 and changed row 14 to CF4 p1