Illegal Cast-On!

I know, I've said before that I'm only allowing new CO projects if they are part of my gift-giving intentions! But...I bought this pattern, had the yarn back-0rdered for months, and when I finally got the yarn, I couldn't find the pattern! So I just found my pattern the other day and couldn't resist! Psychologically, I seem to believe it is a 'quick knit', requiring only 5 skeins of yarn. It detracted from my SSiii knitting yesterday, but my justification (as if my Plain Vanilla socks don't fill this bill!) is that it is a non-thinking, quick, mostly stockinette project! So far, it seems there is a weird error in the beginning (row 5 or somewhere abouts) that I will need to have Nartian examine with me tomorrow. But for now, I pushed through anyway and figure it is minor enough that I can fix it later. But the further forward I go, the more of a PITA it will be to fix, so I am back at the SSiii for now.

I am past Clue 1 and about 10 rows into Clue 2. Below is my SSiii up to Clue 1...

And I neglected to show the Sweet Baby Cap I had finished knitting a while ago. It was officially finished yesterday when I added the i-cord.

Side view, no i-cord...

Front view, post i-cord, being modeled by the recipient's cousin who will deliver the gift to his cousin for me! It's a bit big and is more of a toddler-sized hat. The model is 5 months old, born on April Fool's Day!

Details (geez, I need to go copy this format from IrishGirlie or Nartian!):
Pattern: Sweet Baby Cap
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks that RockHeavyweight-Tlingit (leftover from the Forest Canapy, used for the beginning edging and i-cord), Jasper and Rare Gems (blue, green, browns, burgundy...)
Needles: Size 3 circs
Mods: though the pattern instructs to change yarn every 2 rows, it is really a pattern most people make their own choices on where an when to change colors and not even all the pics for the pattern follow this striping pattern-so really, though my striping did not change every two rows, I would say it wasn't much of a "mod"
Size: 6 mo., but this yarn is a nice, thick yarn and knit up at a slightly larger gauge and as you can see, would probably be more of a 9 mo-1 year size.

On on to a random thought...If Brain Age training is supposed to help my memory, and if I just scored an age 24 the other night (age 20 is the best and lowest age you can get...)...why did I forget I was steaming corn and still not remember even when I could smell the faint burning of the bottom of the pan?!