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Make Your Cast On Looser for Knitting Success

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Try this simple tip for relaxing your cast on in knitting.Do you have trouble with your cast on edge being a lot tighter than the rest of your knitting? I still do sometimes (usually when I’m doing a long-tail cast on and I’m in a hurry so I fly through it and pull tighter than I would if I were thinking about it).

The key to a loose cast on isn’t doing it on a larger needle — that just makes the loops bigger, but doesn’t do anything about the space between them.

What you really need to do is spread the stitches out as you cast on, as this post from Fringe Association notes.

How do you do that? Be mindful of the space between the stitches as you cast on, making sure you’re not bunching them all together. I often stick my thumb against the needle as I’m placing the stitch on so that the stitches sit with that much space between them.

You can also do a knit cast on instead of a long tail, which will automatically be a bit roomier and will remind you to stretch the stitches like you do while you’re knitting.

Do you have any tricks for looser cast ons? We’d love to hear them!

[Photo via Fringe Association.]

Comments

  1. Lately I’ve been doing the ‘Russian’ cast on, which is the long tail cast on with an extra twist. It makes the cast on a little stretchier and a little more room between the stitches. I don’t think I will ever go back to just the long tail cast on.

Have you read?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.