Casting on, often abbreviated to CO, forms the basis of every knitting project. Whether you have to cast on 10 stitches or 100 stitches, being able to confidently cast on is an essential skill every knitter needs to master.
So, once you've got your slip knot sorted, your next step towards becoming a master knitter is to cast on the remaining number of stitches. I was quite surprised to hear from people who would love to knit more, but had never quite managed to cast on properly. It's nothing to stress over, I promise, and hopefully by the end of this article you'd be able to do it in your sleep.
Casting on - The theory
When you cast on, you create the loops, or what knitters call stitches, that you will later use to knit with. The concept is much the same as a normal knit or purl stitch, however instead of leaving the newly created stitch on the right needle, you transfer it back onto the left needle. Easy as that.
As with anything in knitting, you'll find a whole book worth of different techniques you can use to cast on, but often the simplest method is the most suitable. Don't let variety overwhelm you at the start, instead become confident with one technique first. Later, as you start to knit crazier and ever more ambitious things, you will be able to adopt new techniques as you need them.
Let's get started
You'll need your yarn, two knitting needles and the slip knot. If you're not quite sure how to make a slip knot, head over to my 1-2-3 slip knot tutorial before reading on.
For the cast on, it's often a good idea to use needles that are a few sizes bigger than what you will actually be knitting with. This is to allow your stitches to have some extra give, as newly cast on stitches tend to be quite tight and fiddly to work with.
As it is often much easier to understand a demonstration, than written instructions, have a look at this helpful video by KnittingHelp.com. To skip the slip knot instructions, head to the 1 minute mark.
If you would still like to have a breakdown of each step, keep reading.
Step 1 - Prepare your yarn
To prepare your project for cast on, make a slip knot and move it onto the left needle. Ideally, you should leave yourself a nice long tail, so you can later weave it in nicely. The slip knot will be your first stitch.
Step 2 - Make a new stitch
With your yarn tail end pointing to the left and your yarn ball end pointing to the right, insert your right needle from front (right) to back (left) into the slip knot as if you were going to knit. You will see that the slip knot gives easily and leaves you sufficient room for your needles, whatever size you are using.
Wrap your ball end yarn around the right needle in an anti clockwise direction. The yarn will now come out from between your two needles.
If you pull the two needles apart a little bit, you will see that your yarn has created a little divider between the two needles, making one loop on each needle.
Gently slide your right needle down, until its tip is close to the little dividing strand between the two loops.
Now push the right needle tip over and under the loop on the left hand needle. The easiest and least fiddly way to do this is to hold the right needle at an almost right angle to the left needle. You'll see that when you do this, the tip of the right needle will be right next to the left loop. Now just move your needle from right to left through that loop.
Straighten the right needle again, so that both needle tips point in the same direction. Your new stitch is now sitting on your right needle.
Step 3 - Transfer the stitch
All that's left to do now is to transfer the newly created stitch back onto the left hand needle, so that you can keep creating new ones.
To do so, simply pull the two needles apart a little bit. You will see the new stitch get bigger and bigger, as it gets fed by the ball of yarn.
When it's a comfortable size for your needles, simply bring your left needle tip towards the right needle at a right angle and push it under the new stitch. The stitch now sits on both needles.
Slide your right needle out of the stitch and pull the loop tight again by gently tugging on the yarn leading to the ball. For the first few stitches, you might also want to tighten your slip knot, by gently tugging on the yarn tail end as well. And that's it - you've made a stitch!
Repeat the same steps until you have the required number of stitches. Enjoy.
To learn other knitting basics, check out the useful collection of instructions and video tutorials on our Knitting Basics section.
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