Casting On, The Movie

I like the long-tail cast on for its neatness, but it is hard to understand from just reading instructions, so I'm including a video.

For years after first learning how to knit, my mom cast on for me. Casting on is the way you get stitches onto your needle in order to begin knitting. It seems so esoteric and mysterious, especially when you read directions and try to follow. Hence the video I'm adding to this page.

How many stitches you cast on depends on your pattern, measurements, and your gauge - how many inches long you want your piece to be and how many stitches per inch you knit with your chosen yarn and needles.

Here are some additional hints, perhaps not obvious in the video: I pull out about 2" of yarn from the skein for every stitch I'm casting on. The yarn that is wrapped around the thumb is the yarn that includes the end of the yarn, the yarn that is wrapped around the index finger is the yarn being pulled from the skein. The only reason why this matters is because you use more of this part of the yarn strand than the other.

If you do run out of yarn before you have cast on enough stitches, you can either tear it out and start over, pulling out additional yarn before starting, or you can fudge it. To do this, knit the first stitch on the left-hand needle and after you pull the loop through, don't slip the loop off the needle. Leave it on, and add on the loop you've pulled through. In other words, knit one stitch, pull the loop through, and slip it onto the left hand needle.

Now maybe I can put that on a video some day...

I use the Long-Tail cast-on method, but even I learned a new "twist" on it from David's video. Enjoy!