The Knitting Fiend

I’ve cast on for my halter which I am knitting from the top down. I’m hoping to adjust the fit as I knit. I began by knitting a casing like the one illustrated the the left. I’ll run I-Cord through that, and tie it behind my neck. I’m also planning to knit on I-Cord with I-Cord straps at the hem and tie those behind my back.

I needed to cast on the required number of stitches using some provisional technique. I’m horrible at normal provisional cast on methods, so I cheated. (Anyway, why not cheat? The cheater’s cast on doesn’t waste any more yarn than other provisional cast on methods, and a beginner can use skills they already have.)

I picked a smooth yarn to use as waste yarn, cast on 36 stitches and knit two rows. I broke the waste yarn, attached my fashion yarn, and knit 8 rows which is twice the depth I wanted for my casing. To the right, you can see my yellow waste yarn below the 8 rows of heliotrope cotton.

I carefully threaded a thin diameter needle through the first row of stitches, trying to avoid splitting any stitches. If you could count, you’d see there are 35 stitches on one needle; that’s one less than I cast on. This happens because you lose a half a stitch on each end when you pick stitches up from their bases.

I snipped the yellow waste yarn in several places along the row and pulled it out. Pulling it out is usually really easy. This time, I snagged some bits of the yellow yarn, so I had to snip the snagged bits with the scissors when I tried to draw it out. You can see it came out though.

I folded the casing in half, with the cast on edge in back. Then, I knit through a stitch on the front needle and one on the back needle.
I tried to take a picture to illustrate how I knit through two stitches. It was kind of difficult, since one normally uses two hands to knit and two to take pictures. If you look at the picture, you can see the working needle poked through a stitch on each needle; I placed the knitting yarn in position to knit through both stitches. I then just knit through both, sealing the little casing shut. This is almost like a three needle bind off. The difference is: skip the last step, that is, don’t bind off .

Since there were only 35 stitches in back and 36 in front, I knit through only one stitch when I got to the middle. To fuse the pieces together, I poked the needle under the strand between two stitches on the back needle, but that’s not at all necessary. You could just knit through the extra stitch on the front needle and it would look fine.

When I finished, I had a nice little tube of knitting, with 36 stitches. I then began shaping my halter. You’ll see more tomorrow.

I’m thinking of giving this halter a name. How does “Spring Break Halter” sound?