Casting on for HH

This is for Francesca.  It's quick and blurry, but it works.  I've used chartreuse STR for the temporary cast-on and red STR is standing in for the laceweight shawl yarn which I really really wouldn't be able to photograph effectively.  I really do use a sock weight for the temporary yarn, a piece about 10 inches long.

I start by doing a long-tail cast-on (I like it) of 9 stitches with the temporary yarn.  Any cast-on will work, but long-tail is easy to rip.  I knit back SEVEN stitches, letting the extra two stitches just sit there.  They make a nicer handle.  If you need more handle, knit a small swatch of temporary yarn at 9 stitches wide.  I change to the shawl yarn and work row 1, WS, which is k3, p1, k3.

This is row 2, the first row of the chart, RS, k3, yo2, k1b, yo2, k3.  After working row 2, or a few rows later if I'm feeling clumsy or the shawl yarn is especially fine, I remove the temporary yarn by picking out the last temporary row I knit.  This is where it pays to have used a short piece of yarn so you don't have a tail to pull through.

Here, I've done a different method, which is to unravel all but the last temporary row knit.  I pull it and insert a needle with a fine contrasting yarn, then knot that holding yarn.  When finishing the shawl, I come back and graft the 3-stitch garter edge and catch the center stitch as I weave in the end.

   

Comments

[Francesca]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Birdsong]

Thanks for the great photo tutorial! Nice to know which cast on is easiest to rip back, too.