Casting Knitting On

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If you are planning on doing a lot of knitting, you are going to have to learn all about casting knitting on. Knitting cannot be started until you have the required number of stitches on your needle!

There are a number of different method for casting knitting on, so I am going to show you the one I use most often which is called the cable method of casting on.

The first step in casting on is to form a looped knot in your yarn to create your first stitch. I tend to use a slip knot to do this.

To make a slip knot, wind the yarn around two fingers and over the two fingers again to the back of the first loop. Pull the back thread through the loop, insert your knitting needle and pull the knot tight.

Holding the needle with your slip knot stitch in the left hand, push the right hand needle through the front of the loop. 

With your right hand wind the yarn behind, under and over the right needle.

Using the right needle, pull the loop you have just made through the stitch on the left needle.

Place the new stitch you have created onto the left hand needle by slipping the point of the needle into the stitch and transferring it across. 

Now push the right needle through the gap between the two stitches on the needle in your left hand and wind the yarn around the right needle the same way you did in step two.

Using the right needle, pull the loop you have just made through the stitch on the left needle.

Place the new stitch you have created onto the left hand needle by slipping the point of the needle into the stitch and transferring it across. 

Now you just repeat each of the steps from one to seven until you have the right number of stitches on the left hand needle.

For a printable PDF copy of the Cast Knitting on Tutorial just click on this link.

Would you like to actually see how to cast on?  Check out this video demonstration.   If you want a smooth viewing experience, I suggest that you hit the pause button for a while so that it fully loads before you watch it.