Today is the day. I’m launching this new Technics&Tips section (in English!) with how to achieve an elastic cast-on with my favourite technic.
I started to study this subject when I first started knitting socks. I knitted all my socks cuff-down – well, not the case anymore but this is another story – and dig into the Internet for an easy and very stretchy cast-on. I spent hours everyday in public transport and I wanted to be able to cast-on my socks without needing to follow a massive-steps tutorial because you know, I’m a bit Dora-the-fish-like sometimes!
I choose Jeny’s Stretchy Slipknot Cast-On also called the slipknot cast-on. It’s so simple I often use it even if I don’t need my cast-on to be that stretchy.
Jeny’s Stretchy Slipknot Cast-On Step by step
This cast-on is perfomed on only one needle. For now, just forget about the other one. Well, if you’re using circular needle, DON’T, stuck it somewhere – like under your thigh or as a brooch in you sweater, it’s very very elegant, pinky swear! – because otherwise, it will bother you and get mixed up in your yarn and THIS is really annoning, trust me
- & 2. Make a slipknot on your needle, with just enough yarn to weave in end. No need to have a long yarn tail as the following stitches will be formed with the living yarn. Wrap the yarn on your hand as to knit with it (personally, I wrap once around my pinky and squeeze it with my ring and middle fingers to maintain the tension and hold my forefinger up in the air as to knit with an invisible yarn but it’s totally up to you) and around your thumb: place the yarn onto the thumb and bring it to you while moving your thumb underneath the yarn.
- & 4. Put your needle in the loop, between your thumb and where your yarn is crossing itself.
- & 6. Wrap your yarn around the needle, from right to left with the thread under the needle.
7. Pull your needle through the loop on your thumb while flipping the thumb to the back. The new stitch is formed but for now it’s a bit ugly and very loose.
8. To get it straight, pull the ball yarn while maintaining the new stitch with you right thumb to prevent any slipping.
That’s it ! Just repeat steps 2 to 8 up until you have the desired number of stitches.
If your stitches don’t want to get along, don’t panic! Once a new stitch is formed, it can’t be moved. If there’s too much space between your stitches, the yarn excess won’t resorb as in a classic cast-on. To avoid this, get the new stitch at the right place before pulling it tight. Play with your tension while your thumb is still in the stitch to get it just where you want and you stitches will soon become BFFs.
To convince the sceptics, I knitted two samples : the first one is knitted with the elastic cast-on, the other one the a classic long-tail cast-on. Well, still sceptical?
