Learn to Knit: Cable Cast On

I’ve been exploring some knitting basics lately on my YouTube channel and I recently did a video on the cable cast on.

Cable cast on is similar to knit cast on, which is what I like to teach beginning knitters because it lays the groundwork for forming the knit stitch.

The only difference with cable cast on is that you go between the stitches to pull up you next loop instead of working into the previous stitch. If that doesn’t make sense, check out the video:

 

It always seemed to me that these cast-on methods were pretty much the same, that choosing one over the other was more a matter of preference than any real difference between them.

So I decided to compare the two to see what difference, if any, there was. As you’ll see in the video I worked the cast ons with the same yarn and the same size needle, and they look pretty much the same.

But that doesn’t mean they are the same. I was interested to see that the cable cast on was a lot less stretchy than the knit cast on. (I worked them one right after the other and tried to make them as similar in tension as I could.)

In the video I kind of make it sound like a firm cast on is a bad thing. There are a lot of times when we wouldn’t want to use a firm cast on, such as the bottoms of hats or the tops of socks, where we need extra stretch for things to fit our bodies.

But there are definitely times you’d want a firmer cast on. When working buttonholes, for instance, doing a cable cast on instead of a knit cast on might make the difference between floppy and firm buttonholes. I’m definitely going to try it the next time I need to cast on in the middle of a project.

Do you ever work cable cast on? Do you find it firmer than other options? I’d love to hear your thoughts!