I just started knitting and if a friend casts on and completes acouple rows, I’m fine. When I cast on myself (which I’m now a pro at) and I start a knitting row, I end up with this long yarn thread from nowhere. A friend told me its because I don’t hold the tips of the needles close enough. I don’t know how much closer I can get them. Please help!
Thanks,
Christie
What kind of cast-on are you using? The backward loop cast-on tends to be quite loose and if you aren’t careful, it does exactly what you describe. You might try watching the videos (see links at top of page) for the long-tail cast on (I do it with two hands, because I’m too uncoordinated to do it one-handed, as the videos show!), or other types of cast-ons.
That is the easiest way to solve the problem, and will give you a better result in the end. But if you want to stick with what you know, try keeping more tension on your yarn during the first few rows.
It sounds like the “long thread from no where” might be your tail from casting on. if it is, just leave it. don’t knit with it, knit with the yarn that comes from the ball. It sounds like you are using the long tail cast on method, which is what i use mostly.
A pic would help, but I agree it sounds like it’s just the cast on tail.
This may sound crazy, but I’ve been knitting for more than 30 years without knowing how to cast on! I start my own projects without the help of a friend by purling on! It’s the most unorthodox method I’ve ever heard, and no one else does it. But if I didn’t, I’d never knit a single project.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to be perfect to knit! Just find a method that works for you and KEEP GOING.
How do you purl on? That sounds interesting. BTW, however you get the sts on the needle is a cast on, yours may just be an unconventional method.
Exactly! LOL!
I start with a slip knot (I KNOW! NO KNOTS IN KNITTING, but it’s the only way I can figure out how to get it started!!) Then I make a purl stitch into the slip knot, and then pass it back onto the left needle. Then purl into that stitch, pass it back, etc.
I’d love to know how to do that fancy, elegant method I see where the left hand and fingers have the yarn twined through them and the right hand holds a single needle and everything is done in the palm of the left hand, but I’m just not that co-ordinated!
I think I also knit “wrong” (I KNOW, WRONG is a dirty word around here), but I knit by passing my right-hand needle left-to-right through the front loop of the stitch on the left hand needle.
I should really watch the videos!!!
EDITING HERE: I just watched the videos, and I’m knitting correctly! YEAY! And I learned how to cast on! THANK YOU AMY!
You can ignore the no knots `rule’, especially for a CO, that’s not the only way to start, but most people do it.
That’s how I thought you meant the purl on, it’s just the purl version of the knitted CO and I’ve done it. Makes a nice edge and you’re essentially doing the crocheted CO. You’re knitting correctly I think, if you insert the needle into the first st from front to back.
I never could do the Long Tail co in one hand, I use the right hand to `knit’ the yarn onto the needle, then slip the thumb loop off. Once I found it was the same thing as the one handed version, I figured it was okay.
I do a cast on where you make a slip knot and put it on your needle. Then you hold the yarn as a kind of loop with your pointer finger and your thumb, then you draw your needle through the loop, and keep doing that until you have all your stitches. My mom taught me how to do this when I was first learning to knit. Anybody have any idea what kind of cast on this is? I was just wondering after reading these posts. Thanks!
I’ve done a few “how to cast on” videos on my website which can be found listed here, but the way I did my casting on for many many many years was just something I came up with on my own which made sense to me and seemed to work just fine. Sometimes what works for you isn’t what you see in the How To manuals!
MGM
I do a cast on where you make a slip knot and put it on your needle. Then you hold the yarn as a kind of loop with your pointer finger and your thumb, then you draw your needle through the loop, and keep doing that until you have all your stitches.
I think that’s the backward loop. Have a look at the cast on videos and see if one is like you do.
Yeah I’m pretty sure that’s it. I always wondered what it was called, now I know. Thanks!! :mrgreen: