Chapter 4 Learn to Cast On Cast Off and knit

To begin knitting we have to first Cast on a number of stitches on to a knitting needle. As you know now that knitting needles and yarns come in various sizes. To begin with you can take a bulky yarn, which knits quickly and 5mm or 6mm needles. Needle Conversion charts for US and UK are given in the previous Chapter. CAST ON: There are many ways of casting on and one must chose the most comfortable way of doing so. I like the LONG TAIL CAST ON as it gives a firm edge. And I also double my yarn while doing so for greater stability. You should be able to judge how much yarn you would need to cast on the number of stitches that you want. Do not worry if the length is extra, it can be trimmed later, but if you make it too short, you might have to open it again. Steps: 1. Take yarn about one foot in length (30 cm.) fold it on itself, so that you have 2 feet (60 cm.) of yarn. A lot of knitters do not use the double tail, they merely just use the single length, again it is your preference. 2. Next create a slip knot, by holding the tail that you have created (2 feet, double on itself) and wind it on first two fingers on your left hand, as shown in the picture. This will create a circle. Fig. 4.1

Figure 1 Starting a Slip Knot

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

3. Insert the knitting needle through this circle to get a loop on your needle. This is the first stitch that you will begin with. Fig 4.2. If you use the double tail like me, you will get two stitches in this one loop to begin with, you can choose to treat them as two or one. If you use a single tail, then you get one stitch.

Figure 2 Making a slip knot

4. After having successfully created the Slip knot, place the knitting needle flat on your left palm with the tail towards your left and the working yarn towards your right, refer to fig. 4.3

Figure 3 Position of tail yarn, needle and working yarn

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

5. Now look at the same figure (fig. 4.3), and do exactly what is shown, i.e. wind the tail yarn around your thumb, pass it over the knitting needle and hold it with the ring finger and little finger.

Figure 4 Casting on

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

6. Take the working yarn as shown in Fig. 4.4, around the knitting needle and bring it

back to the right side.

Figure 5

7. Pull the needle out from below the tail yarn, and release the tail yarn from the thumb,

Fig. 4.5, this will form a loop and cast on one more stitch on the needle, fig 4.6

Figure 6

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

8. Repeat the process until you get 20 25 stitches to begin working with. It is not very difficult to learn this though it may take a while getting used to it, and then you can CAST ON your stitches while watching a movie or listening to music. There are many other ways of casting on, but I find this the best as it gives a firm edge, but really you can refer to other books or YouTube videos for your reference.

Figure 7 One Stitch added

KNIT STITCH The technique of knitting is based on this knit stitch the reverse of this stitch is called the Purl stitch. To make this stitch, which is referred to as plain or knit proceed as follows: 1. Hold the knitting needle with Cast on Stitches in your left hand. 2. Hold the other needle in your right hand. 3. Insert the right-hand needle in the first loop (which has the working yarn) from front to back. 4. Take the working yarn around the right hand needle (just like you did while casting on). 5. Draw the right hand needle and yarn through the old loop, forming a new loop on the right hand needle. 6. Drop the old loop on the left hand needle (through which the new loop was formed. 7. Wow!! Youve just created your first knit stitch.

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

8. Repeat steps 3 to 6, till all the loops in the left handed needle have been knitted. 9. This completes one row of knits. 10. To continue, hold the needle with loops again in your left hand and start afresh with the other needle holding it in your right hand. Every Knit stitch gives an appearance of a V on the face of the fabric, the back of this V, gives a rather straight bulky stitch, which is a PURL stitch, therefore in fact when you knit, you create a Purl stitch on the back automatically.

Figure 8 KNIT STITCH

THE PURL STITCH 1. Hold the knitting needle with Cast on Stitches in your left hand. 2. Hold the other needle in your right hand. 3. Insert the right-hand needle in the first loop (which has the working yarn) in the front, (for knit you inserted it at the back) from right to left 4. Take the working yarn around the right hand needle (just like you did while casting on). 5. Draw the right hand needle and yarn through the old loop, forming a new loop on the right hand needle. 6. Drop the old loop on the left hand needle (through which the new loop was formed. 7. So your first Purl stitch is created. 8. Repeat steps 3 to 6, till all the loops in the left handed needle have been knitted. 9. This completes one row of purls. 10. To continue, hold the needle with loops again in your left hand and start afresh with the other needle holding it in your right hand. Purl Stitches give a very Bulky look. The reverse of a purl stitch is a knit stitch.

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

Figure 9 Purl stitch especially shown in Red

THE SLIP STITCH Many interesting patterns that you will learn later require you to slip the stitches. Slipping a stitch means just to transfer it from the left hand needle to the right hand needle without knitting or purling it. CASTING OFF After you have knitted the desired length of fabric you need to cast it off (Europeans refer to it as CAST OFF and Americans call it BINDING) because it cant stay on the needles forever. You need to bind these loops, in order to finish your fabric so that it does not unravel. 1. KNIT CAST OFF: 1. Knit two stitches 2. Insert the left hand needle into the first stitch that was knitted on the right hand needle. 3. Lift this stitch over the second stitch, pull it out of the needle and drop it. This secures and takes care of this loop. 4. Now there is only one stitch on the right hand needle, so knit the next stitch. 5. Repeat step 2 and 3. 6. Now you have secured two loops, and again you are left with one stitch, so repeat step 4 and 5 till you are just left with one loop on the right hand needle and no

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta

loops on the left hand needle, now pull the working yarn through this last stitch to fasten off, and cut the yarn. What a satisfaction of creating a sample from scratch. If your last row is purl and you want to do the purl cast off, then do exactly like the knit cast off replacing a knit stitch with a purl one.

Chapter 4 Cast on, Knit, Purl and Cast Off by Toolika Gupta