The Knitting Fiend

Someone emailed and asked me about working a tubular cast on. I think there are several cast ons called “tubular”; this one works when knitting 1 x 1 ribbing.

Here’s how to work the cast on:

• Find the number of stitches you want in your ribbing, round to an odd number. Add 1, then divide by two. This is the number of stitches you need to cast on. (So, say you want 23 stitches of 1 x 1 ribbing. 25+1 = 26. Divided by 2 = 13. Cast on 13 stitches.
• With waste yarn, cast on on using any method you like. Knit one row. (I forgot to knit a row!) Break yarn.
• Row 1: K1 *yo, K1, repeat from * to the end of the row. (If you cast on, there will be 13 Knits and 12 yos resulting in 25 stitches; see above left.)

• Row 2: P1, *K1, slip one with yarn forward; repeat from *. (Note, you will be knitting into the YO’s of the row below and slipping the stitches you knit.)
• Row 3: K1, * K1, slip one with yarn forward, repeat from *.
• Row 4 & 5: Repeat previous two rows. (Repeating rows 2-3 over and over is called ‘tubular knitting’ and gives this cast on it’s name. )
• Begin 1 x 1 ribbing starting with a P1 on even rows and a K1 on odd rows.
• When you have knit a few rows, remove waste yarn. If you remembered to knit the extra row, just snip the edge and pull the yarn out. I had to snip every stitch because I forgot!

Here’s your edge. It’s looks a little better than simpler elastic cast on I showed last Saturday but it’s not quite as elastic.

If you examine the cast on carefully, you’ll notice rows 2-5 form a little casing. You can thread elastic through that casing and hide it perfectly. That can be useful when knitting socks. However, in that case, you’ll need to adapt these directions to knitting circular.

Stumble it (and place in Knitting/crochet!)

5 Comments »

1. This is great, but my favorite way to cast on now for 1×1 ribbing is a knit purl cast-on. You do a regular long-tail cast on, but every other cast-on stitch, you purl by going under the index finger yarn, into the thumb loop as if to purl and then execute a regular purl. It takes some practice, but once you understand that a long-tail cast on results in all knit stitches and you can think of your thumb loop as the left needle and your index yarn as the yarn coming from the ball, it works. Hey! I wonder if you can replace your thumb with an actual needle to make it easier for people to visualize…..

   This cast on is incredibly flexible and finished looking. It is basically just as elastic as the ribbing itself. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work with other ribbing repeats. It is so nice, I actually find myself wanting to graft it onto the top of toe-up socks instead of thinking about how to cast-off.

   I don’t find the tubular cast-on to be as elastic as people say. You can’t stretch it as far as the ribbing….Maybe using larger needles for the first rows/rounds of the tubular would help…

   Comment by Linda (0 comments.) — 9/12/2005 @ 10:51 am

2. I’ll have to try your cast on, but it sounds like I won’t be able to photograph my hands doing it. Maybe I can get Jim to photograph . . . (He’s very cooperative, but, let’s face it, he’s at work!)

   This isn’t really my favorite cast on. I’ve heard people go on and on, but I think there are just others that are either easier or prettier or more elastic. I think you could use larger needles to make it more elastic, but then that first row might look bumpier. I guess it would be worth a try!

   Comment by lucia — 9/12/2005 @ 10:57 am

3. Great cast on, Linda! I tried it for the mouth of a mesh knitted shopping bag and it’s nice and stretchy and clean-looking.

   When casting on purl-ways, thinking “of your thumb loop as the left needle and your index yarn as the yarn coming from the ball” really helped.

   Comment by Caroline (0 comments.) — 12/11/2005 @ 11:47 pm

4. Oh! I love tips for how to think of what you are doing. Thanks, I’ll try that.

   Comment by lucia — 12/12/2005 @ 7:54 am

5. Thanks Caroline! I have even figured out how to do all of this knit/purl with an extra twist as a twisted loop (aka German twisted) cast-on. I’ll have to do it and actually write down the steps, but it looks to be even a little stretchier with more “snap back.” It might be worth it in a less resilient yarn….

   The other thing about the knit-purl (I think it is in the back of all of the Interweave Knits recently in the glossary): Once you understand that a long-tail cast-on is really just a simple loop cast-on plus one row of knitting all done at once, you can extend that to see that a knit-purl is just a loop cast on with one row of ribbing done at once…

   Comment by Linda (0 comments.) — 12/12/2005 @ 11:15 am

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