I am going to be starting this hat for my husband.
It says to use the long tail cast on or another method with stretch in it.
I abhor the long tail cast on with my entire being. I hate it so much, and if I can avoid doing it at all, I will.
For someone who primarily prefers knitted cast on, what alternative for the long tail cast on but contains a similar stretch is there?
:noway: Why??
I did find another one - Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Cast-On -
I don’t know if it’s any easier, but give it a try. There are probably other stretchy cast ons, too.
You could do a cable CO, just keep it pretty loose or go up a couple needle sizes.
I particularly like the cable cast on. It is stretchy and very easy to do.
The fingering. I absolutely cannot hold the yarn the way I am supposed to and I cannot, no matter the gazillion times I have tried, loop the needle the correct way. I’ve had people watch and correct me probably about a hundred times now (no joke), and I have not once been able to do it correctly.
The long tail cast on is mine enemy.
I can’t do the long tail in one hand as shown, so a long time ago I realized if you use the R hand to ‘knit’ the working yarn on, and slip the thumb loop off, it comes out just the same. Look at the alternative thumb method on the Cast ons page.
I’m chuckling kindly at your rant about gazillion tries to loop it the correct way, and your name on here is loopdeloop. It struck me as funny!
I also do long tail the way Suzeeq does. The way it is shown on the video is particularly hard because it doesn’t start with a slip knot. I can do it, and it is a good thing to learn as a springboard for several other good cast ons, but I prefer to work my long tail with a yarn in each hand.
I quit using a slipknot for all COs several years ago; it eliminates the lump at the end of the row or when joining in the round.
I’ve never done it with a yarn in each hand. I do it w/o the slip know like the video.
I usually do it without the slip knot too, but mostly because of the talk I hear about the “lump” I’m supposedly eliminating, than for actually noticing a big difference. 
I think that the slip knot makes the cast on a little easier for a beginner.
Believe me, it makes a ‘lump’ whether you knit at a loose gauge like I do, or a normal gauge.