Skill Builder: Long-Tail Cast-On

Ann and Kay’s Skill Set: Beginning Knitting is a tidy little book—a perfect set of nine lessons to get a new knitter started with confidence.

Skill Set is also a set of 44 YouTube videos that illustrate every technique in the book. Quick, to the point, no gibblegabble. Bookmark that link, and you’ll have a wealth of good how-tos nearby.

And there’s the Skill Set Box of Joy, a complete kit designed to provide all the materials that are referenced in Skill Set.

To get started getting started, Skill Set teaches my all-time-favorite, number-one all-purpose cast on: the long-tail method. Up top is the Skill Set video tutorial that shows exactly how it works, in less than two minutes.

To dive deeper, here are tips and tricks for making the long-tail cast-on even better.

To Knot or Not to Knot?

Controversy alert! Some tutorials teach you to start the long-tail cast-on by just catching the yarn around the needle. Like the Skill Set instructions, I always start by making a slipknot; it’s more stable and tidy than just a wrap, and if you’re working in the round, it can help reduce the divot at the join.

A related tip: If you are casting on to work in the round, I recommend working the first stitch with both the ball end of the yarn and the cast-on tail held together. It makes for a tidier join. Just remember that the first stitch will be double-stranded, when you come around to the start again.

How Long?

Running out of tail before you have enough stitches cast on is one of the most annoying things in knitting. There are three ways to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

Casual: My non-scientific approach is this: unless you’re using super-bulky yarn, you’ll never run short if you leave yourself about an inch (2.5 cm) per stitch. For sock yarn and lace weight, make it half an inch (1 cm) per stitch.

This is absolutely an overestimation, but I’m being a bit sneaky, as having a longer tail offers a few advantages.

• It allows enough to make the edge nice and stretchy. (Keep reading!)
• It leaves you enough of a tail for sewing up a seam if required. (And honestly, an extra few inches in the tail is not a big deal in terms of yardage to finish the project.)
• You don’t need to worry about which end is over your finger, and which is over your thumb. (Keep reading for an explanation of this!)

More precise: The traditional method for estimating the required tail is this: wrap the yarn around your needle ten times, then measure that length: that’s how much you need for ten stitches.

So for 50 stitches, you need five times that. It’s not complicated, and does work well. But you do need to be a bit careful with a too-precise tail measurement.

You use the yarn wrapped over the thumb and the yarn wrapped over your finger at different rates. The instructions will always tell you to put the short end over your thumb since you use slightly less of that.

If your estimate is too accurate and you mix up the two yarn positions, you can get into trouble. Not a disaster, of course, and something that is easy enough to avoid—although the more stitches you’re casting on, it seems like the risk of mixing the tails up (and therefore running out) is higher!

Dodging the issue entirely: There is another way around this. Using two ends of yarn— one each from two balls of yarn, or one from the outside and one from the inside of a ball—leave yourself about a 6-inch (15 cm) tail and make the slip knot with both yarns held together.

Then work the long-tail method as usual, using the two ends. Once you’ve got enough stitches, cut one of the ends, leaving a decent tail again to be woven in later, then continue knitting with the yarn attached.

This does mean you’ve got two more ends to weave in, but if you have to cast on a million billion stitches, it might reduce the stress of having to estimate.

Stretchy?

Sock knitters love the long-tail method as it’s a bit more stretchy and flexible than many of the other standard methods, and you can control the degree of stretch.

Here’s the trick: when you’re pulling the stitches up to the needle, space them out. I put my index finger between them, to create breathing room.

Don’t use a larger needle. Contrary to popular advice, it doesn’t help this at all!

To make the edge more stretchy, you need more yarn below the needle, between the stitches; using a larger needle makes the actual stitches larger but doesn’t add anything between them.

RS or WS?

The long-tail method is, actually, a knit row. You’re making a backwards loop and knitting into that loop. If you are working in the round, join straight away to get a tidy and smooth lower edge.

If you’re working back and forth in rows, then the cast-on edge will present as a purl row. If you’re to work in stockinette stitch, and you want a nice smooth smooth edge, work the first row as purls.

First row worked as purls = smooth:

First row worked as knits = bumpy:

This cast-on is such a useful all-rounder, it’s definitely worth learning.

Are you a yarn shop owner who would like to stock Skill Set: Beginning Knitting? We’ve got options for you!