The Knitting Fiend

I see a lot of searches on “How to knit circular” in my referer logs. So, I guess some knitters don’t know how to do it. 

Of course, unless someone asks me directly, I can’t tell for sure which part of knitting circular is confusing them,  but I do know beginning knitters often just need to  know how to cast on and join the work to get started.  If you’ve arrived at this page using a google search, and have a different question, drop a line in comments, and I may be able to answer it.
  
In this blog, I’m going to show how to cast on and join to knit a cuff of a sleeve or sock. Joining for the body of a sweater is almost the same but just a bit easier, and I’ll talk about the one thing that’s different you’re working the body of a sweater when we get to the appropriate point.

For the record, I’m showing my way to cast on and join; I don’t know if my methods is endorsed by the knitting police. It seems to me there are many, many correct ways to do this.  I’m pretty sure my Mom does it differently, and her way is right too.  Many knitters adopt their way based on what they find difficult or pesky to do, and what they find easy, simple, or beautiful. 

These are the factors I considered when coming up with my oveall method: I like the appearance of cable cast on (aka, ‘knit on stitches’ cast on), and it wears well.  I tend to cast on tightly, but I want the first row on ribbing to be stretchy. I also have a hard time making sure things aren’t twisted when I join.  I also don’t like a jog near the join at the cast on edge.  I don’t like feeling anxiety that I cast on too many or too few stitches.

As I describe my method, I think you’ll see how my likes and dislikes are reflected in my preferred method of casting on. You may want to modify individual steps based on what you find difficult or pesky.

Anyway, here’s how I do it!

To exactly mimic my method, you will need three sets of needles: 1) A circular or straight needle with a larger diameter than you use for the ribbing, 2) a circular or straight needle with the same diameter you use for ribbing and 3) double pointed needles in the diameter you use for the ribbing. (There are also called DPN’s or sock needles.)

First, you cast on. If you follow my patterns, you will notice that you will cast on 1 more stitch than required to knit the ribbing after casting on.  So, if the 1 x 1 ribbing has 30 stitches, I will cast on 31 stitches; in the example, I will use these numbers when I need numbers to clarify my example.

I always cast on with a circular needle, mostly because that’s what I have handy; you can use straight needles for the cast on and to knit the first row. After that, you must use circulars or double pointed needles. Because I tend to cast on tightly, I always cast on using a larger diameter needle than I use for the ribbing.  This makes the stitches for the cast on row bigger than if I used smaller needles.

The very first stitch can be created several ways. One is to make a slip knot and put it on the resting needle, which is the needle on the left here.  I just make a backward loop as for a backward loop cast on. Sorry, no pictures.  I can’t take photos of that without a helper! 

To make additional stitches, you knit them onto the needle. Here’s how:

1. Insert tip of working needle between first and second stitches on the other needle.  (If there is only one stitch on the needle, poke the tip into the loop on the needle.)
2. Yarn over. (I dropped the yarn and took a picture here.)
3. Pull new stitch through.

4. Place the stitch you just created back on the resting needle. 

5. Repeat this four step procedure until I have at least as many stitches as you need on the needle.  I always knit on a few extra because I’m worried I’ll count wrong.  So, I cast on more than 31 stitches even though the directions say 31 stitches.

You will now be holding a needle filled with stitches on your left hand, and an empty needle in your right hand.  Keep it that way, and begin a row working as though you are going to knit back and forth rather than circular!

Most of the time, I use 1 x 1 ribbing for cuffs; I like to knit this on smaller diameter needles than I used to cast on.  Because I used a large diameter needle to cast on, the first thing I do is replace the tip on my Denise circular needles. 

To work the first row, I slip the first stitch.  Then, I begin to repeat (p1, k1) and continue until I have one less than the number of stitches I need to cast on on the right hand needle. In this example, that’s 30 stitches on the right hand needle.

I count to double check I have one less than the correct number of stitches on the working (right hand) needle. Then, I slip a stitch from the left needle to the right needle. In this example, I would now have 31 stitches on the right hand needle. I double check that I worked the first pattern row correctly, since mistakes at this point do need to be ripped out. 

By the way, I find I make fewer mistakes counting now than when I cast on.  There are two reasons for this.  At least with my eyes, it’s just easier to see the individual stitches when there is a row below. Also, I can use math to figure out if I’m off by exactly 1.  How? Well, say first pattern row is 1 x 1 ribbing,  I slipped 1, then repeated (p1, k1).  So, all the “even” numbered stitches are purls, and, except for the first and last stitches, the odd numbered ones are knit stitches. So, if I am supposed to cast on 31 stitches, I know the second to the last three stitches are k1, p1, slip 1.

Remember I said I make it a habit to cast on too many stitches?  In the photo above and to the left, you can see a blob of yarn to the left of the stitches on the right hand needle.  Those are the extra stitches which I dropped off the needle.  I tried to take a picture before the stitch closest to the right needle unraveled, but it unraveled almost instantly. You need to pull a little to unravel the rest.  Also, if you used a slip not to make the first stitch, you may need to poke the tip of your needle into that to take out the knot. 

When you unravel, you will notice the loop by the very first stitch appears loose as shown above and to the right. You can tighten that up by pulling lightly on the yarn at the cast on end; that’s the strand is running down to the bottom of the photo.  You can do this now, but I advise waiting, because there just no point in having that final stitch be tight yet.   If you look carefully, you can see that final stitch was slipped and not knit.

Now, join! This is the “mystery” part.

If I’m working a cuff, I find my double pointed needles. (aka, sock needles).  I slip the stitches onto the sock needles.  My set has only 4 needles, so I distributed the stitches on 3 needles.  Since I had 31 stitches, I slid the first 10 on one needle, the next 10 on the next needle and the final 11 on the third needle and then folded them into a triangle.

Or at least, I sort of did this.  If you look carefully, you’ll notice two needles go through the corner stitches, I slid the second needle into the corner stitches in before I folded into a triangle.  Putting the corner stitches on two needles isn’t required; I don’t even know if it’s commonly done or recommended, but I find it helps me keep the needles from twisting all around when I work the first round.  

When you do this, you need to make sure the cast on row isn’t twisted.  Notice my hand under the work?  I just look to see that the cast on row doesn’t twist around the needle. I sometimes just run finger along the ridge made by the cast on edge. I find it easier to detect twisting if I join after knitting a row rather than earlier before I’ve knit the first row. (This is the main reason I don’t join until after I knit the first row!)

Ok, so what if you have a lot of stitches as for the body of a garment. You’re probably thinking, “I don’t want to use sock needles.” Don’t! Use a circular needle; spread the stitches out from tip to to tip. Make a circle with the needle, instead of a triangle, and check the work isn’t twisted!

You will notice the stitch that used to be on the far right of the circular needle you used to knit the first row is next to the one that used to be on the far left tip of the needle  — that is, the first and final cast on stitches are next to each other.  You slipped both of these on the first row.

Now, I pick up the work and the fourth sock needle. Rotate around to the two slipped stitches. Pick up the yarn, slip the “last” stitch (on the right hand needle) onto the left hand needle, insert the right tip into both of two stitches, yarn over and knit through both stitches.  If you cast on 31 stitches, you will now have 30 stitches on the needle.   It is worth counting the number of stitches at this point.  (I took the photo after yarning over, then dropped the yarn to snap the picture.)

Remember that strand I said you could pull on to tighten the very first stitch? And I said you could wait to tighten,  you can pull it gently now. Or you can still  wait! 

If you like, hang a ring marker, to indicate this “knit” bump is the beginning of the round.  It’s not to hard to tell it’s the beginning though. The yarn from the cast on will be hanging at the bottom, and you know the first stitch is a knit ridge.  You also don’t need to keep track of where the beginning of the round is until you switch to the body of the sweater.  My patterns always suggest you hang a stitch marker now, because it’s the easiest time for beginners to know this is the beginning for certain.  That said, I wait until later, trace up from the string hanging down at the cast on, and hang it when I begin knitting the body.

Next, look carefully. If you are knitting 1 x 1 ribbing, the next stitch should be a purl stitch.  So, start working (p1, k1) all around.  You’ll be purling into stitches that show purl bumps and knitting into stitches that look like knit ridges. Keep doing this mindlessly until the piece is as long as you need it to be. 

I want to take a small diversion here and mention something to beginners.  Notice in this example there are 30 stitches in the round; that’s an even number. Notice that (p1, k1) repeated around and around and around over an even number of stitches creates 1 x 1 ribbing in circular knitting. 

Any reasonably kind and understanding designer will make sure there are an even number of stitches on the needles when you knit in 1 x 1 ribbing knit in the round.  If they specified an odd number of stitches, either they are mean, or stupid, or both.  There is also a tiny possibility that advanced pattern with fancy stitch pattern and they have some good reason to specify an odd number of stitches, but chances are, they are just mean.

Also, for beginning knitters:  Knitting the first rounds on sock needles feels clumsy to me. It has since I was 7 years old. So, don’t assume you are doing something wrong just because it feels weird.  It never feels right to me until I have at least 4 rounds on the needles. I also tend to want to twist things and create extra stitches at the corners, so I make sure I can see what I’m doing at this point. 

Oh, also, normally, I hate knitting with Bamboo needles because the stitches sort of “stick” to the surface.  I prefer less friction so the stitches just slide.  However, when I’m knitting on double pointed needles using needle diameters over size 2 American, I do prefer bamboo needles.  The extra friction from the bamboo seems to help prevent the stitches from sliding off the needles. I would be using them here except I’m too cheap to buy them just to knit cuffs when I already own a perfectly good set of aluminum DPNs!

Here’s the thing: If the work looks like 1 x 1 ribbing, you are doing it right.  If it looks like something else, well, just rip back and start over.

Here’s how mine looked after a few rounds. If you flip it over, you’ll see there isn’t any noticable jog near the cast on. I avoided one by slipping the first and last stitch and working them together. This forced the bottom of those stitches to be line up and make a nice even bottom.

By the way, if you still haven’t pulled that strand to tighten the first stitch, you can tighen it now.  Or you can still wait!  But, if you’re like me, you’ll do it now so you can admire the cast on round.

That’s it! Hope it helps people who wander over to my blog.