Adventures in Pattern Adapting

I discovered, while working on the adorable Jester cuff from SWTC's Socks a la Carte (a really fantastic book, I must say), that:

1. if a pattern repeat has increases and decreases (in this case, two yo and, a few stitches later, a VDD) and
2. if your needle split for DPNs, 2 circs or magic loop is in between those increases and decreases for one pattern repeat (two yo on needle 1, the VDD on needle 2)

your work will have a gradual migration of stitches from needle 2 to needle 1.

The pattern calls for a cast-on of 84, and I'm using magic loop so, following the instructions for 2 circs, I split the stitches at 42 on each needle. I first discovered that, with the stitches split that way, I would have to find some way to magically knit 2 together across the needle divide, and I also had a yo at the END of the row, which is a pain in the butt and ends up offsetting the stitches even further. So I frogged it and re-cast-on, and shifted the pattern so that I was starting in the middle of the pattern repeat, putting my k2togs not across the needle split.

Unfortunately, shifting the pattern put the yo, k1, yo in the first half of the repeat on needle 1, and the VDD (sl2 as if to k2tog, k1, pass two sl st over) on needle 2. Increases on one side, decreases on the other, and by round 2 I had 44 and 40 instead of 42 and 42. By round 4, I had 46 and 38, and by round 6 I was looking at passing slipped stitches over across the needle split, which would have given me 48 and 36.

So! The pattern repeat is across 12 stitches. I am now working the pattern from the middle of the repeat, as I did on try #2, but instead of splitting the stitches 42 and 42, I split them 48 and 36 (4 repeats of 12 and 3 repeats of 12, respectively), which ensures that none of my pattern repeats cross the needle split and I have no yarnovers at the end of a row (or at the end of a needle split). And this pattern is working up to be absolutely adorable!