The Knitting Fiend

While knitting the swatch I blogged about yesterday, it occurred to me that I would prefer my vest to have vertical stripes. So, I will need to knit my vest sideways. That’s fine, I’ve crocheted lots of sideways vests, and I know they work out well.

I can knit a nice plain nearly unshaped vest, with garter stitch trim all around. The simplicity will show off the beauty of the yarn.

However, when started to bind off my swatch, I realized it wasn’t going to look like the cast on. Normally, I don’t give a hoot. But, with this vest, the bind off and the cast on are going to be facing each other. So, it will bug me if they don’t look the same. What to do?

Now, I know it’s possible to make a bind off look like a cast on, but the method involves a tapestry needle, and I hate to do it! So, I needed to come up with another solution.

Here’s the solution I dreamed up:

Work a “cheater’s provisional cast on”¹, take the waste yarn off, pick up the stitches and bind off. (I could, of course work an honest to goodness provisional cast on. But, I find my gauge changes on the cast on row when I do that . So, I’d rather just cheat.) But, I wasn’t quite sure if I’d thought everything out correctly, so I practiced it. I took pictures so I’d remember what I did when I’m working out the full pattern.

So, here’s exactly what I did: With waste yarn, cast on 12 stitches. (I used yellow acrylic.) I knit a few rows of a few rows garter stitch only because I was planning to take photos. (Never do this again.) Knit a 1 row. Break yarn. Purl side facing, attach “ravel cord” . Purl a 1 row. (Ravel cord is any slippery yarn. I often use crochet cotton, but this time, I just used the same smooth yellow acrylic as the waste yarn. ) Attach yarn for garment. (I used blue acrylic yarn.) Beginning knit side facing, work 4 rows stockinette. (Note: Even number of rows.) Knit 1 row, reducing two stitches evenly across row. (So, 10 stitches remaining. Knit two rows. (Garter stitch now.) Bind off by ( slip stitch, slip, knit 2 together), then * slip 1 , k2 tog** repeat across row. On last stitch pull yarn through loop and anchor. I took the photo shown to the top left. I pushed a needle through the loops of the garment yarn (aka, blue acrylic.) Took photo (second from top). Notice that there are 11 stitches on the needle. That’s one fewer than I cast on. Pull the row of ravel cord to draw it out. Pull off waste yarn; this leaves the garment yarn on the needle. I took a picture when I had partially drawn off the waste yarn. (The ravel cord needs to be slippery, or it won’t pull well. I find I sometimes need to cut, it, spread the knitting out and pull more and cut it. ) Attach yarn on the side with the yarn end from the cast on. Purl 1 row, reducing 1 stitch evenly across. (So, 10 stitches remaining.) Purl two rows. (Garter stitch.) Bind off in purl I took a picture. Notice the two edges look exactly the same! I also like the fact that the bind off side curls to the purl side.

Now, as long as I’m being finicky about this cast on, I’m also going to make sure I unwind enough yarn for the garter trim and bind off from before I cast on. I’ll just pull it from the skein, wind it up with a rubber band and let it dangle near the cheaters cast on. Then I can pick up that yarn and knit the trim. There will be two fewer tails to weave in, and the progression of colors will be consistent.

That’s the plan anyway.

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Added Feb. 15 2005:
I have learned there is also something called an invisible cast on. That cast on involves working a crochet chain, and picking up stitches from the underside of the chain. Later you can undo the last stitch in the chain and pull to remove the chain. This leaves you a row of live stitches, exactly like my cheater’s provisional cast on. However, because the picked up row often has a different gauge from the rest of the knitting, it’s advisable to unravel the first row knit with the main yarn and start knitting down from the stitches of the second row.

I’d estimate the amount of yarn wasted, and time spent are similar with both methods. My method uses techniques all knitters already know, using the tools all knitters already own. Of course, huge number of knitters own a crochet hook and know how to make a crochet chain, so those are not necessarily overwhelming advantages to my method. You can try both methods and decide which you like best.