Help with Basic Cable Hat!!!

[tamagotchi]

no, it's supposed to be like stockinette panels where the cable is.

here's a link to my post with my basic cable, so you can compare:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=139724.msg1373589#msg1373589

as you can see, I modified the pattern so that there's a k2 p2 rib at the bottom for a good 2 inches before I start the cables.  from the photo it looks like your stitches are off.  are you using a marker to mark the beginning of the row?  that helps a lot.  if you don't have one just use a piece of yarn in a contrasting color.  

another problem I can think of is that you might be twisting your cable wrong.  you could be twisting the stitches around backwards, so that it shows the purl side.  you don't really twist the stitches in the cable...just kind of rearrange them on the needle.

[Kity]

Hum, Tamagotchi has a point.
ever been to knittinghelp.com? They have free videos of how to do things,
On this page -http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/advanced_techniques/ They show a picture of holding circular knitting(as well as the video if you click) What I think you may... be doing is holding it... inside out, as I once read on a sock making tutorial. So make sure the cable of the needle is to the back of your work, and the needles are at the front, so what you see, is what you get. If you were not doing cables, it wouldn't matter because you can flip it inside out when your done and it not matter, but cables look weird on the backside :/ Am I making sense? This is what confused me the most when it came to circular knitting, not twisting it accidently, but knitting "inside out".

[harual]

I might have messed up on the cables but the part that is supposed to be cabled is not stockinette on either side.  In the picture (which its really hard to see I'm sorry) the cables have kind of a stockinette with a garter through them.  This doesn't make sense.  I have to be doing something wrong because it doesn't look like the pictures of the other hats. 
I have been k2, p2, k6, p2 all through the 96 stitches and then doing the exact same thing for the next 4 rows. 
I don't think I need a marker because that justshows me where the end of the round is and its really easy to see - so I finish a round and start a new one.
Sorry for bugging you guys about this but it's driving me crazy trying to figure out what's wrong. Thanks for the help. 

[arabella]

if you are positive you are knitting the knit stitches, then I am guessing twisting your cables?  I just "graduated" to my first knit hat and at first I was twisting the cables.  then I switched to one of the U shaped cable needles, which is long on one side and short on the other, and I knew I should always be knitting off the long side (I picked them up on the short side) which helped.  before I was turning the needle wrong and knitting the purl side, if that makes sense?  Also, I can't really tell from your picture, but on my hat it took a row or two before it looked normal, because I started knitting where previously I was purling, do you know what I mean?  I did a different hat pattern, but also a basic cabled hat. 

[harual]

Question:  When knitting with circular needles you are supposed to take the stitches from the left side and knit or purl them onto the right side and after you are finished going through the 96 stitches you turn the needles so that the left side has the tail and you continue to the next round, right?  Otherwise you would knit it together and not be able to remove it from the needles, right?

[Kity]

Oh No! you just go round.. and round.. and round. ThatIS garter you are doing. You can get the needle out anytime, the needle will slide out between the stitches
here is the link again
http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/advanced_techniques/
click the little blue/pink camera button next to large diameter circular knitting. Its a video that should help you understand
Now we know whats wrong, you are working it like regular knitting, that is flat.
You want to end up with a tube, you don't have to sew up that edge when its done.

[harual]

OMG Kity!  I watched the video yesterday and that's what made me question what I was doing! (she didn't knit the whole round) I was searching all my books and everything!  Thank you so much!!!!! I'll post a picture when I'm done!  I can't wait to go home and knit!!!

[Janutituti]

Oh harual, I just want to jump through the computer and help you out!  I hope that you've got it figured out now.  You're going to love the hat!  When I do this pattern, I add in an extra repeat of the rounds, so that I am repeating rounds 1-6 four times instead of the three that the pattern calls for.(Hope that makes sense.)  I have found that this makes the hat a little longer and keeps people's ears a little warmer!  You'll have to post the finished project! You can do it!