Got the hang of long tail cast on!

General Knitting
1

I just wanted to share that I have now gotten the hang of the slingshot method for long tail cast on! :woohoo:

It confounded me for some time, but I finally got it. Now I am working on a cowl for my mother for Christmas. I guess I have to knit like the wind to finish it, but it shouldn’t take too long, seeing as I plan on doing it all in garter stitch, knitting like its a short,fat scarf, and then sewing the ends together.

2

Success! It’s so much fun to learn a new technique and long tail cast on is such a useful one. Good luck with the cowl!

3

Whohoo! :woot:

I really like long tail… apart from when I don’t have enough yarn for all the stitches… like last night… I miscalculated… three times! :roflhard:

4

Cool. The long tail cast on comes in handy. Enjoy working on the cowl too.

5

:yay:

Such a great cast on! A helpful tip when measuring out yarn for this, since most say to allow an inch per stitch for long tail cast ons to be long enough: The distance from the tip of your nose to your fingertips when holding your arm straight out to the side is approximately half your height. If you’re 5 feet tall thats about 2 and a half feet, or 30 inches, about 30 stitches when you measure your yarn from nosetip to the end of your yarn. If you need more just pull more yarn from your hand to your nose. Voila! About 30 more stitches!

6

I use LTCO almost exclusively! Once you ‘get it’ it is so easy to use! Congrats!

7

My favorite is also long tail. One way to do it w/o running out of tail is to use two skeins or the two ends of one skein. Make a slip knot with the two ends and put it on your needle. Separate the two ends and cast on the number you need. Cut one of the ends and continue knitting with the other. This method creates a few more ends to weave in, but saves you from a lot of :hair: when you have to cast on a lot of stitches.

More detailed explanation

8

I, too, use the long tail almost exclusively, unless of course the pattern specifies otherwise. To measure out the length I need I’ll use the measurement from where I’m holding the yarn to my shoulder, so I’ll get the stitches I need plus 6".