Casting on

One of the elements that I love about knitting is that you never stop learning - this can be in workshops, books, online videos and so forth, but can also be from each other. So I thought I would share regular hints and tips with you, that I have picked up over the years.

As we start with casting on in knitting, that seems as good a place to start as any!

A cast-on edge should be firm but have some give, if your cast on edge is too tight consider casting on with a larger needle or changing your cast on method.

There are lots of different cast-on methods and many are multi purpose, sometimes a pattern can specify a type of cast on, such as a stretchy cast-on, provisional cast-on or decorative cast-on but for most patterns, as long as your cast-on method is neat and firm with some stretch then there is no need to change.

If you are casting on a lot of stitches, you may want to consider stitch markers every 10 stitches to allow easy counting and maybe longer needles or a circular needle. Circular needles are also useful if you suffer from any aches in your hands or wrists, as the weight of the knitting is held in your lap rather than on the needles and the actual needle shaft is much shorter.

Once cast-on you will notice your cast-on tail is on the left if you used the cable cast-on, or on the right if you used the thumb method. Depending on your cast-on method, which ever side the tail is on at the this point, is where it will always be when the right-side of your work is facing you.

My preferred method of cast-on is cable cast-on - it is a good multi purpose cast-on, easy to teach and most importantly, it is what my Granny taught me..