The knit cast on, aka lace cast on: Let me list its virtues.
- It’s as easy as the long-tail cast on. Maybe easier.
- Speaking of the long-tail cast on, you know that if you don’t leave a long enough tail, you run out of yarn before you’ve finished casting on. No such worries with the knit cast on.
- It creates a strong edge.
- It’s perfect for adding stitches in a project. Work to the end of the row to which you need to add stitches, then knit them on!
Here’s how to do it. First, make a slipknot and place it on the left needle, like you would for any cast on. Then, insert your right needle into the stitch as if to knit.
Wrap your yarn around the right needle as if to knit and pull the loop through.
Place the loop you’ve pulled through on the left needle as shown. Note that I’m inserting the left needle into the new stitch from the bottom rather than slipping it from the top of the right needle directly over to the left needle. Doing this would create a twisted stitch.
Now you have two stitches. You’ve knit the first stitch and placed the resulting loop on the left needle. You’ve knit, and cast on. The knit cast on!
The resulting edge looks like a right-side row of Stockinette stitch, which makes sense because you’ve basically knit a row by casting on.
Go forth and knit cast on!
