The backward loop method of casting on stitches is also known as the thumb method of casting on, and as the “single cast-on”, “e-wrap cast-on”. It’s a stretchy cast-on that is quite easy to do. However, it tends to leave loops along the bottom edge, which can look rather loose. To counter that, it can be helpful to drop down a needle size for the cast-on, then going up again when continuing with the rest of your project. While the backward loop cast-on is pretty easy to work, I really don’t prefer it for most projects, because I find the stitches very hard to work into on the first row of knitting.
There is one place where this cast-on really shines, though: when stitches needed to be cast on in the middle of a row, like for the underarm of a sweater. Yes, those are still hard to knit into on the next row and may seem rather loose. However, the number of stitches is usually very small, making that less of an issue.
Let’s get started!
Working the backward loop cast-on step by step
Take your working yarn and loop it as shown in the picture below, with the yarn going to the project in front.
Next, insert the tip of the right needle from back to front through the loop.
Pull the yarn snugly around the needle.
Repeat steps 1-3 for as many stitches as needed.
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The tubular cast on creates a rounded edge of your knitting project, as well as being very stretchy. This makes it a very good cast on for edges that are prone to wear and tear. And, of course, where the stretch is useful. Think, for example, of top-down socks, and the start of a bottom-up hat. In this example I’m casting on for a top-down sweater.
Of course, there are many ways to work a tubular cast on. This particular version is for working in the round in k1, p1 rib patterning.
Materials used
Yarn: Shetland Lambswool from De Schapekop, a yarn very similar to Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumper Weight, and no. 5 crochet thread or other smooth waste yarn.
Needles: KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 2.5 mm (US 1 1/2) and the 3.5 mm (US 4) size. Both with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).
Other materials: a crochet hook, and a stitch marker.
Working a tubular CO in the round for 1×1 rib step by step
First, using the larger size needles, the smooth waste yarn and the provisional cast on of your choice, cast on half as many stitches as you need according to your pattern.
Now, using the smaller size needle and the working yarn, work (k1, yo) across all provisionally cast on stitches.
After this row is finished, as shown below, it’s time to join into the round.
The last worked stitch is a yarn over, so make sure it stays intact when joining into the round.
Here I’ve rearranged my stitches to continue knitting in the round, magic loop style.
Before joining, I made sure that my stitches weren’t twisted, and I’ve added the stitch marker to indicate the beginning (and end) of a round. Also, do you see that the yarn over is still there, behind the stitch marker?
In this step, work (knit 1, slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in front) to the end of the round.
In other words: knit every stitch that was knit in the previous round, and slip every yarn over. Below, is how it looks after this round is completed.
Next, work (slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in the back, purl 1) to the end of the round.
In other words: slip every stitch that was knit in the previous round, and purl every stitch that was slipped. This is how it then looks:
In this step, work (knit 1, slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in front) to the end of the round.
In other words: knit every stitch that was slipped in the previous round, and slip every stitch that was purled.
Now we repeat step 6: work (slip 1 purl wise with the yarn in the back, purl 1) to the end of the round.
In other words: slip every stitch that was knit in the previous round, and purl every stitch that was slipped.
In this step, it’s time to unravel the provisional cast on
Starting at the end that you indicated when doing the provisional cast on, undo the knot and gently pull the cast on loose.
This is the cast-on result, ready for further knitting (k1, p1) rib in the round (using magic loop) as described in your pattern!
A comparison
I thought it would be useful to compare the tubular cast on with a regular knitted on cast on one. So, I continued the piece above with another few rounds in (k1, p1) rib until it measured 1.5 cm / 0.6″.
Now take a look at the following picture. The lower neckband has a regular knitted-on cast on, followed by 1×1 rib for 1.5 cm / 0.6″. The one at the top has the tubular cast on in the round with 1×1 rib. Both pieces are worked in the same yarn, and with the same needle size.
I think the neckband with the tubular cast on looks much better, with its rounded edge. It is also much less likely to give issues with wear & tear, because there are no single strands of yarn right at that edge. What do you think?
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Most of my projects are about knitting lace, not cables. The reason? I find that with cabling, my flow is very much interrupted. First by getting the cable needle. Next, by manipulating all three needles I have in my hands at that moment while working the stitches. Followed by laying the cable needle aside again. All of this to repeated multiple times in a row, depending on the patterning, of course.
For complex cables, I see no way around using a cable needle. For the simple twists only involving 2 stitches, it’s another matter, though! Cabling itself is nothing more than working in another order than the one they originally appeared on the knitting needle. So, if we’re talking about simple twists only involving 2 stitches, we can easily change the order around without using a cable needle. And, of course, without having a big risk of dropping a stitch.
Needles: Addi Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4.5 mm (US 7) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).
Cabling without a cable needle step by step
In this example, I’m working on my Mossy Cables shawl that involves various types of cables. The ones that can easily be done without a cable needle, are the following ones: 1/1 LPC – a left cross cable over 2 stitches: Slip next stitch to cable needle and place at front of work, p1, then k1 from cable needle. 1/1 RPC – right cross cable over 2 stitches: Slip next stitch to cable needle and place at back of work, k1, then p1 from cable needle.
To start, we knit to the point where a cable has to be worked.
See those 2 stitches on the left-hand needle? I want to reverse the order of that purl and knit stitch, to make it seem that the column of knit stitches curves outwards from the center cable. To do so, I want the knit stitch to cross in front and to the right of the purl stitch. In other words: I’ll be working a 1/1 RPC or right cross cable.
To start, I grab the work directly below the 2 stitches, as shown in the picture below.
This way, I can remove them from the knitting needle without having the risk of them running down and ruining my work.
Here I’ve removed the 2 stitches from the needle.
Keep squeezing that fabric, we don’t want to drop one of these stitches!
To change the order of the stitches, I first place the stitch on the right (the purl stitch in this case) back on the needle.
While doing so, keep your fingers underneath the other stitch to keep it from running down. Please note that if I was working a left cross cable instead of a right cross cable, I would have held the remaining loose stitch at the back, instead of at the front of the work as pictured.
Now use the working (right-hand) needle to catch the remaining loose stitch from the front and also put it on the left-hand needle.
For a left cross cable, I would have caught the remaining stitch from the back of the work.
Now the order of the stitches has been changed, ready to work!
This is how it then looks in the case of the right cross cable:
For this right cross cable, I have to work 1 k, followed by 1 p.
This is how it looks when done:
And that’s all there is to cabling without a cable needle!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
The Turkish cast-on is a way to invisibly cast-on for projects to be worked in the round. Think, for example, of toe-up socks. This cast-on can be used for a wide range of projects and not just for socks. It can be used for anything that requires knitting in the round and a neat, seamless start. In other words, for anything you’d use Judy’s Magic Cast-On for, this cast-on is a good alternative. And, to be honest, I find this one to be much easier and less fiddly to work!
Materials used
Yarn: Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, in the color 128 Lime Green.
Needles: KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).
Working the Turkish cast-on step by step
In this example, I’m casting on 20 stitches, as one would do for toe-up socks.
To start, we make a slipknot, and place it on the needle.
Next, arrange both needle tips as shown in the picture below.
Place both needle tips parallel to each other, with the slipknot-holding needle below the other one, and the working yarn behind and above the top needle.
Now wrap the working yarn around both needles. Make as many wraps as half the total stitches you want to cast-on.
In this example, I want 20 stitches total, so I wrap the yarn 10 times around the needles.
Next, pull out the bottom needle (the one with the slipknot).
It helps to keep the wrapped yarn in place by holding it close to the needle with your left hand.
Now use the pulled-out needle tip as your working (right-hand) needle to knit into the first stitch on the main (left-hand) needle.
To do so, first insert the needle knit-wise into the stitch…
…, and wrap the yarn around the needle.
To finish the knit stitch, pull the yarn through en let the loop fall off the left-hand needle.
This is how it then looks:
Repeat steps 5-7 until there are no more loops on the needle.
This is how it looks:
To work the other 10 stitches that are on the cable, we have to rearrange the circular needle.
First, orient the work in such in a way that the row of stitches with the slipknot is on top, as shown below. Now push the needle in, so they no longer rest on the cable, but on the needle tip instead. For the other row of stitches, pull the needle tip out, so the stitches rest on the cable.
In this step, I’ve slipped the slipknot off the needle, because I don’t need it as a stitch.
Just gently pull the yarn tail to pull the slipknot loose. Next, knit all the stitches on the needle as described in steps 5 to 7.
This is the cast-on result, ready for further knitting in the round (using magic loop) as described in your pattern!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
When working in the round with lots of stitches, using a circular and just going round and round and round is a relatively easy thing to do. It’s however, a different case when working in the round on a project with a small circumference. With small circumference knitting, it usually just doesn’t work in a circular needle, because the needles and the cables are just too long to accommodate the limited number of stitches.
What exactly is magic loop knitting?
The short description is, that with this method, you pull out a loop of cable of your circular needle to divide your stitches. This is usually done into two equal parts. Once the stitches are divided, you can use the free needle tip to knit across half of the stitches. Next, the project is rotated and the needle pulled through to work the remaining stitches.
Materials used
Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the colors 142 Tea Rose.
Needles: * Addi Lace Circular Needles, in this tutorial I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 100 cm (40 inches). I would like to advise using at least a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches) to facilitate magic loop knitting.
Magic loop knitting step by step
1. Begin by casting on the required number of stitches for your project. I used the cable or knitted-on cast on in this example. Once this is done, you can continue to the next step. However, doing so directly increases the odds that the cast-on twists around the needle, resulting in a twist in your work when joined in the round. To avoid this, I usually just knit the first “round” of the pattern flat. So, that’s what I also did here!
2. Next, lay the work down on a table in front of you in such a way, that the working yarn is on the right. Make sure that the cast-on edge is not twisted around the needle.
3. Now, move the stitches to the center of the cable and find the middle point in the stitches. If working with an odd number of stitches, no worries: this won’t make that big of a difference. Gently bend your cable and bring it up between the center stitches.
4. Next, pull the cable gently to reposition both sets of stitches on the needles as pictured, instead of on the cable. Make sure the working yarn is near the tip of the needle at the back, in between both needles. For working the first stitch, make sure it runs up between the needle tips for knitting, and for purling that it runs down.
5. To join in the round and to start knitting, grab the needle tip that is at the back and pull it out so the stitches on it slide to the cable. Now is also the time to put a “beginning (or end) of round” stitch marker on this needle tip. This needle tip becomes your right-hand or working needle.
6. Now you’re ready to work your way across the stitches on the left-hand or main needle. Especially with the first few rounds, you can encounter a “gap” at the spot you joined in the round. You can help avoid this by connecting both sides of this gap with a removable stitch marker. It also helps to tighten up the second stitch you work on each needle.
7. Once you worked across these stitches, it will look something like this:
8. Next, turn your work so that the working yarn is on the right again and the former back needle is now in the front.
9. To be able to use the needle that is now in the front as your main (left-hand) needle, we first have to pull the cable connected to the needle tip. This way the stitches slide from the cable onto the needle tip.
10. Again pull out the other (back) needle so that the stitches rest on the cable and the tip can be used as your working (right-hand) needle and work across all the stitches on the main (left-hand) needle.
11. Continue steps 6 to 10 for each round as described in your pattern.
And that’s all there is to it!
After a couple of rounds the work will look something like this:
Knitting a “round” flat before joining in the round, as I described in step 1? Don’t forget to use the yarn tail to sew it closed when finishing your project.
But what about laddering?
Laddering is nothing
more than that the stitches are pulling apart a little, if it happens
it’s usually where you switch from one needle to the other. As
described with step 6, it really cuts down on laddering if you
tighten the second stitch when working the stitches on each needle.
The material of the cable of your circulars, however, also has a great influence. The stiffer the cable the more resistant it will be to being fold in half to accommodate magic loop knitting. This means that with a very stiff cable it will actively push apart the stitches on the ends of both needles. The same issue may happen if you’re using a circular needle that is too short. I like my circs to be at least 80 cm / 32 inches. Do try out for yourself what length hits the sweet spot for you!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
It seems there are 2 distinct camps when it concerns the Kitchener stitch: either you love it or you hate it. Personally, I don’t really understand the hubbub around this technique, it’s a very useful one in certain situations. One just has to know how to do it. And that’s where this tutorial comes in!
But first: what is Kitchener stitch? It’s a method of grafting two sets of live stitches together in an invisible way. It’s often used to seamlessly close the toes of top-down socks, for example. The “seam”, so to speak, is really a new row of stitches that you create using a yarn needle. To do so, the needle is passed through the live stitches of the pieces of knitting to be joined, in a similar manner similar as the direction in which a knitting needle is inserted within a stitch. This can be purlwise or knitwise.
Materials used
Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the colors 155 Vintage Pink for the swatches and 125 Spearmint Green for the Kitchener stitch.
Working Kitchener stitch to graft stockinette step by step
Before we start, we have to make sure that the two pieces of stockinette fabric that we will be grafting together, each have the same number of stitches.
Set-up
1. To start, we hold the two needles containing the live stitches parallel to each other, with the wrong sides of the fabric facing inside and the right sides facing outside.
2. Take your darning needle and pass it purlwise through the first stitch on the front needle. Pull the yarn through, while leaving the stitch on the needle.
3. Next, thread the darning needle knitwise through the first stitch on the back needle. Again, pull the yarn through, while leaving the stitch on the needle.
Repeat
1. Front needle: Pass the darning needle knitwise through the first stitch of the front needle. Pull the yarn through and slip the stitch off the needle. The below picture shows how it looks after the stitch has been dropped.
2. Front needle: Next, thread the darning needle purlwise through the second stitch on the front needle. Leave the stitch on the needle and pull the yarn through.
3. Back needle: Pass the darning needle purlwise through the first stitch of the back needle. Pull the yarn through and slip the stitch off the needle. Again, the picture shows how it looks after the stitch has been dropped off.
4. Back needle: Next, thread the darning needle knitwise through the second stitch on the back needle. Leave the stitch on the needle and pull the yarn through. Gently adjust the tension of the newly made stitches to match the fabric of the pieces you’re grafting together. Be careful not to pull your yarn too tightly!
Repeat steps 1 to 4 until only 1 stitch remains on each knitting needle. This is how it then looks:
Finishing
1. Now insert the darning needle knitwise into the first stitch on the front needle and pull the yarn through, dropping the stitch from the needle.
2. To finish, insert the darning needle purlwise into the first stitch on the back needle. Pull the yarn through and drop the stitch from the needle.
And that’s it! Pretty seamless, isn’t it? The only reason it can be seen as clearly as it is in this example is that I used a contrasting yarn.
Points of attention
If the tension of the new connecting row of stitches is not right yet, you can use the tip of your darning needle to further adjust. Just start at the right edge of the work, where grafting began, and gently pull the various stitches to adjust the tension until it matches the tension of the joined pieces. Also, when moving from front to back needle and vice versa, make sure to pass the working yarn and darning needle underneath the knitting needles, not above them.
Many people use a little rhyme to help remember the various steps that are to be repeated. It goes like this:
Front: Knit off –(knit first stitch on front needle, drop stitch off) Front: Purl on – (purl next stitch on front needle, leave stitch on) Back: Purl off – (purl first stitch on back needle, drop stitch off) Back: Knit on – (knit next stitch on back needle, leave stitch on)
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
Perhaps you’ve heard about Judy’s Magic Cast On: a truly magic and invisible cast on for toe-up socks. This cast on was first devised by Judy Becker and shared in her article on Knitty. It’s a very clever cast on, as it creates a truly seamless start of your work. As Judy shares in her article, this cast on can be used for a wide range of projects and not just for socks. It can be used for anything that requires knitting in the round and a neat, seamless start.
Since I’m such a fan of this technique, I’m giving you my take on this cast on in this tutorial.
Materials used
Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, in the color 128 Lime Green.
Needles: * Addi Lace Circular Needles, in this tutorial I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 100 cm (40 inches). I would like to advise using at least a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches) to facilitate magic loop knitting.
Working Judy’s Magic Cast On step by step
1. This cast on is worked with both the yarn tail and the working yarn. This means, that to start, we need to estimate a sufficient length of yarn tail. One method to do this is to wrap the yarn around your needle once for every stitch to cast on, and then give yourself approx. 15 cm / 6 inches extra so you’ll have enough to weave in later.
2. Make a slipknot leaving a yarn tail as determined in the previous step and place it around the top needle. Pull to tighten this first loop/cast on stitch. Arrange the yarn in such a way, that the yarn tail is above the top needle and the working yarn is below the bottom needle as pictured.
3. Now move the yarn tail downwards, under and then over the bottom needle and next underneath the top needle to bring it back to its starting position. You now have cast on a loop on the bottom needle.
4. Next, take the working yarn and move it under and then over the top needle and next underneath the bottom needle to bring it back to its starting position. You now have cast on a loop on the top needle.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you’ve cast on the required number of stitches. Take care not to tighten these stitches too much, since this will encourage a little bump to form on each side of the cast on stitches. In this picture, a total of 18 stitches, 9 stitches per needle, have been cast on. (And yes, I really should have used a slightly longer yarn tail….)
Working the first round after the cast on
There are some peculiarities with the first round after the stitches are cast on using Judy’s Magic Cast On. Read on to find out more!
1. Turn the needles so that the bottom needle is now on top and ready to serve as your main (left-hand) needle.
2. Pull out the other needle to place its stitches on the cable and to use the tip as your working (right-hand) needle to knit into all the stitches on the main needle, magic loop style. Make sure that the yarn tail lies between the working yarn and the main needle. This way you can lock the yarn tail in place once you start knitting.
3. Knit the stitches on the main (left-hand) needle. If the first stitch loosens up a bit, just tighten it back up by softly pulling the yarn tail.
4. Next, turn your work so that the working yarn is on the right again.
5. Pull gently on the left-hand cable loop to pull the needle into the stitches and the former bottom needle is now on top and ready to serve as your main (left-hand) needle.
6. Likewise, pull out the other needle to place the stitches just worked on the cable, and to use the tip as your working (right-hand) needle to knit into all the stitches on the main needle, magic loop style.
7. Work the second set of the cast on stitches. Only this time, knit them through the back loop to correct their stitch mount.
The result
Once all the above steps are followed, this is the result. You’re now ready to continue with your knitting in the round (using magic loop) as described in your pattern.
And this is how to work Judy’s Magic Cast On and the first round after casting on!
Thanks to my Patreon supporters for bringing you this freebie! Creating quality patterns and tutorials is a lot of work and resource-intensive. However, I find it important to give you free content like this tutorial. Thanks to the generous support of my Patreon supporters, I can make it happen. Thank you, patrons! Click here to join, or click here to read more about La Visch Designs on Patreon.
I know, it seems so basic: making a slipknot to start casting on your knitting project. But that’s only because once you know how to do it, it’s easy! And yes, I know it’s possible to start casting on without a slipknot, and that it’s sometimes to be preferred because it doesn’t give that extra knot on your cast-on edge. But that’s not the point here.
Most of the times I still start my knitting projects with a slipknot, even though I know how to do it without. I guess I just like that sturdy start of my cast-on edge! In this post, I’m going to show you how to do make a slipknot around a knitting needle yourself.
Making a slipknot step-by-step
1. Loop the yarn as shown in the picture below.
2. Next, arrange the yarn tail in such a way, that you can pull it through the first loop, like this:
3. Insert your knitting needle as shown, underneath the arranged bit of yarn tail.
4. Now hold both the yarn tail and the yarn going back to the ball of yarn and pull them both to tighten the slipknot around the needle.
5. And there you have it: a lovely slipknot around your needle! You’re now ready to start casting on the remaining stitches needed for your project. You can for example use the knitted-on cast-on for this.
Of course, it can be hard to visualize the motions needed to realize the above. For that very reason, I’ve also made a short video in which I show you how I make slipknots around my knitting needle. It doesn’t contain a spoken commentary, it’s really only to show you the motions!
