Increases and decreases

Oh boy I'm so proud of myself, I've managed to knit increases and have nearly finished the cardigan for Melody. It's not as hard as I thought it would be but I've had to come to terms with something I've learnt along the way. I knit a little oddly... When doing a knit stitch my right needle goes straight behind behind my left needle, like this

but all the videos I've seen they put the right needle in the front first then it goes behind the left like this.

 

One stitch is horizontal when working and the other is vertical I don't think there is any difference in either method when it comes to the final look of the work but I tell you now it took me some time to figure out how I needed to complete the increases, but once I got my brain round it they were rather easy. The decreases however were even worse to try and suss out.  For example I cannot for the life of me fathom out why I would even bother following the SSK directions correctly, why bother slipping two stitches onto the other needle when I can just knit two together... And the K2Tog instructions well that was fun, I'm already knitting two together why are there two different terms for the same thing, and thing I figured out that it was knitting two together in the front.

Well... Why don't they name them K2Tog Front and K2Tog Back so you knit the stitches together in the front or knit them in the back and leave out all this slipping stitches malarky!

Anyhoo I'm nearly done with the cardigan just the rest of a sleeve and the seaming of the hood to finish and now Melody seems to be sleeping again at night I might finish it soon.  This is how it looked a few weeks ago.