We all get into our own groove when it comes to knitting habits. I learned the knitted cast on, then learned the cable cast on one day when watching my mother begin a project. I used that cast on for years, and when I learned the long tail cast on, it became my habit for years.
Today’s cast on, the waste yarn provisional cast on, however, changed my knitting life. I no longer shy away from casting on hundreds of stitches for a full-width afghan. It’s also useful for casting on any project where you’re going to knit in the opposite direction such as a hat with a lining or a stole worked in two panels from the center to the ends.
I recently showed the ladies at my local knitting guild this technique, and I expect that some of them will use it.
With 40 years of knitting behind me, I tend to choose a cast on for a project that’s going to complement it in some way. I still use long tail and other cast ons, but when I have a project that needs a lot of stitches, I use the waste yarn provisional cast on.
To best convey this information to you, I prepared a video. It’s my first attempt at video making; I hope you enjoy it.
Waste yarn provisional cast on Vimeo
This is part 5 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 4: Knit a stronger splice join when starting a new ball of yarn
4 comments
Can you tell me or do you have a different video which shows how to knit the first stitch once you have done the provisional cast on?
Hi Laurel, thank you for asking. After you’ve cast on your provisional stitches, in this case the orange yarn in the video, you work those stitches to start your knitting, whether it’s knit or purl as per your pattern. Let me know if this has been helpful.
Cynthia, I think I love you. I’ve spent several days fumbling around with dozens of videos and yards of yarn, and at age 58 I think your video is the first one that makes sense to me! And I haven’t even watched it with the sound on yet!
Thank you, Barbara! It’s really gratifying to hear that my video helped you with your knitting dilemma!