Baby Hat Cnt.

Well, so far the baby hat is not going well. I have recast and ripped it back several times. How many I am not sure it keeps getting bigger in my mind the more I think about it. I am doing the hat on dpn and am getting horrible ladders between the needles. I have read a bit on the internet trying to figure out how to prevent this. The main thing is tension and to hold your yarn tight on the first and second stitches of each needle. So far despite how tight I pull the yarn I am still getting big ladders, I sometimes wonder if I am knitting too tight with the rest of the stitches. I will have to do more research on the internet as I want to get this hat done this week. Any suggestions are welcome.