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An Easy Way to Take the Guesswork Out of the Long Tail Cast On

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how to know the right length for a long tail cast onI love doing the long tail cast on. It’s what I use probably 98 percent of the time. It’s quick and easy once you know how to do it, but it can be a challenge, especially when you’re casting on a lot of stitches, to know how long your long tail should be.

A reader recently sent in this video tip that will help you make your long tail the right length every time; it’s actually the method I use most of the time when I’m casting on this way, too.

I’ll save you the click and tell you that it’s a matter of wrapping the yarn around the needle once for each stitch you need (or if you’re casting on a bunch, wrap, say, 20 times and then use that amount as a measurement to get up to the number you need).

I would add that you should do this kind of loosely because if you wrap the yarn too tightly you won’t have enough to make the stitches.

Do you do something like this when you’re estimating for a long tail cast on? Do you actually measure the length you need or do you guess? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo via Sheep Thrills.]

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Comments

  1. When doing the long-tail cast-on, I use 2 strands of yarn…either from 2 balls or from the outside and inside of 1 ball. You can cast-on any number of stitches you need without having to estimate, or without ever having a tail that ends up too long/short. Once the stitches are cast-on, you just need to cut one yarn and continue knitting with the other.

  3. Once, I cast on 100 stitches, pulled them out and stretched that yarn between my arms. Now I know if I stretch out my arms as far as they go, with the yarn in my hands, I have about 100 stitches worth of yarn. To make up for needle sizes, I generally add a bit of yarn to the final amount. It usually works out pretty close and any excess can be used for seaming, if necessary

Have you read?

Knit a Fish Pouch, for Reasons

I can’t resist a pattern that’s both useful and a little silly, and that’s exactly how I feel about the Rybka pouch pattern from the delightfully named Rat and Sea Witch.

I know you’re going to ask, because I did, too. Rybka means little fish in Polish. (And because you’re also probably going to ask, Rat and Sea Witch comes from people’s attempts to say the designer’s name, Ratasiewicz, which if you say it fast kind of sounds like rat and sea witch.)

It’s easy to make a little fish bag in different sizes to suit your needs. The pattern has specific instructions for an Airpods Pro case and a pencil case, but you could change the length easily to hold more stuff, and change the size in general by working with a different weight of yarn.

The pattern calls for sock yarn and mohair held together to make a fingering weight gauge, but you could try it with heavier yarn and see what size bag you end up with.

Whatever size you make it, this looks like a fun project for holding trinkets or everyday items. The mouth of the fish is the mouth of the bag, and it closes with a drawstring that is also the strap. I wonder, too, if you could make one of these with a small clasp frame that could be the fish’s mouth and then you could just work I cord straps that would attach to the sides of the fish.

I could also see stripes, or fish of different colors to use up your yarn leftovers. How about a sunglasses case with a little loop to attach to your bag? Once you start thinking about all the ways you could use a fish-shaped bag in your life, I think you’ll see that you probably need more than one.

If you make one of these I would love to know how it went!

You can grab a copy of the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Rat and Sea Witch]