Comments on: Tubular Cast On

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:51:39 +0000

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…

By: lucia

lucia — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:57:34 +0000

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!

By: Caroline

Caroline — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 04:47:20 +0000

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.

By: lucia

lucia — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 12:54:18 +0000

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

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 16:15:10 +0000

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…