If you find the garter tab cast on method confusing, or if you want to avoid a hump that sometimes forms on the edge started with a garter tab, feel free to use an alternative way to get those nine stitches on your needles.
This method is easier, faster and it doesn’t create any humps and bumps.
The cast on point will stay neat and flat whether you use this approach to start a triangular shawl, a crescent shawl, or any other project that needs a pinpoint cast on.
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Let’s see how this alternative to garter tab cast on works step by step.
INITIAL CAST ON
Leave a short yarn tail and make a loop so that the yarn tail is at the right side, the working yarn is on top of the yarn tail, and the point where these two strands cross is at the top of the loop.
Take an empty needle in your right hand and insert the tip of that needle from front to back into the loop, pick the working yarn and pull it through the loop forming a stitch on the right needle.
Make a regular yarn over by bringing the yarn to the front of the work and over the top of the needle.
Finally, insert the needle into the loop again, grab the working yarn and pull it through forming another stitch.
Now we have three initial stitches on the needle.
Pull the yarn tail to close the loop. This loop has done its job and it is time for it to disappear.
Turn the work and you’ll be ready for the first row.
ROW 1
Knit 1 stitch.
Make a loop so that the working yarn is at the back of the loop and place this loop on the right needle. This is a left-leaning backwards loop increase.
Knit 1 stitch.
Make a loop so that the working yarn is at the front of the loop and place this loop on the right needle. This is a right-leaning backwards loop increase.
Knit the last stitch of this row.
Now we have five stitches on the needles.
ROW 2
We could have run another round of increases to get to the target number of stitches faster. I tested this approach and discovered that it is better not to speed things up. Increasing stitches in every row forms an concave curve at the cast on edge and that curve starts to show as we work more and more rows.
That’s why the second row of this cast on method is a “rest row”. We’ll simply work all stitches without making any increases. To add garter ridges to the cast on point (similar to the ridges formed by the garter tab cast on method), knit all stitches in this row.
If you want to work in stockinette stitch, purl all stitches in this row.
ROW 3
[ Knit 1 stitch, make a left-leaning backwards loop increase ], work the brackets twice.
[ Knit 1 stitch, make a right-leaning backwards loop increase ], work the brackets twice.
Knit the last stitch.
As you see, we now have the same nine stitches that we usually form when we use the garter tab cast on method, and now we are ready to start working on our project.
The next row is a wrong-side row. If you work in stockinette stitch, purl all stitches. If you make this cast on edge in garter stitch, knit all stitches in this row.
As you work on your project, you can add shaping to the fabric by making yarn overs (as I did at the right side of the swatch picture in the photo below), or by pairing left-leaning and right-leaning backwards loop increases (used to shape the left side of the swatch).
Another benefit of this cast on method is that it allows us to avoid garter stitch altogether.
HERE’S A VIDEO TUTORIAL THAT SHOWS EVERY STEP
If you choose to work in stockinette stitch or any other stitch pattern and add your favourite edging to the sides of your project, work the second row of cast on in that stitch pattern trimmed with whatever edging you like (for ideas on various ways to make beautiful side edges, check out my book “Neat Side Edges”).
For example, in a swatch pictured below, I purled all stitches in row 2 of the cast on and worked the first and the last stitches of every row as Silesian selvedges. Then I continued to work in stockinette stitch shaping the right side of the swatch with yarn over increases and the left side of the swatch with paired increases formed by the backwards loop method.
If you plan to make this cast on in garter stitch, don’t worry about mixing up left-leaning and right-leaning increases. Use the increase the feels easier for you to form all new stitches because the slant won’t show in garter stitch anyway.
Many thanks to Kathleen Z for suggesting an idea that lead me to developing this method.
SAVE IT FOR LATER
This and 36 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #7.