Provisional cast-on - picking up stitches?

9 Responses to “Provisional cast-on - picking up stitches?”

On June 8th, 2008 at 7:01 pm Margaret said:

I don’t know of a video on-line that shows you. But those bumps that you see, you go into those and do a pick up and knit. Hopefully that helps…sorry I didn’t know of a video link to share with you.

On June 8th, 2008 at 9:50 pm Amber said:

Thanks! I think I just figured it out. I made the chain too tight, though, and had trouble unzipping it, so am going to have to start over. It’s good practice, anyway!

On June 9th, 2008 at 4:44 am Linda F said:

Hey, where did my comment go?? This is a test

On June 9th, 2008 at 4:47 am Linda F said:

Ok that one worked so lets do this again.

I found the best tutorial, check out the link at my blog (http://lindaknittingblog.blogspot.com/) that reads “crochet cast on”. It makes it soooo much easier. Check it out, you crochet the chain right onto the needle, thus you don’t have the worry of making sure you pick up the right loops. And I found (as I was pulling my hair out) that with each pickup loop the next gets tighter and tighter. try it, you’ll be happy!

On June 12th, 2008 at 2:09 pm Jo said:

Go to Lucy Neatby’s online shop. She used to have a video of how to do a provisional cast on that is mind boggling. Essentially, it is the same one that Linda F. is talking about! When you do it this way, you crochet over the needle…this forms loops, as if you knitted it! You simply knit your short row toe as usual, then, when you come to the part where you need to put your live stitches onto the needle, you simply pull the provisional yarn out of the stitches one by one and put them on a needle! Fabulous! Really!

On June 12th, 2008 at 7:52 pm Janet A Tucker said:

If you crochet your waste chain and loop it over your knitting needle as you snug each stitch down, you can then just knit away - no picking up loops. I found this one in a knitting techniques book, and it works very nicely (but I can’t find the book now!)

On June 14th, 2008 at 7:18 pm Susan said:

Maybe this is cheating, but…I solve the problem on toe up socks by using my old standby the cable cast on, then knitting into the spaces between the stitches leaving the original stitches on the needle. Divide the stitches, make 1 increases and off you go. Quick and easy. Hope this helps.

On June 15th, 2008 at 8:39 am Marlene said:

Sigh. I tired Linda F.’s technique. It seemed to work fine, but when I tried to unzip the chain, it didn’t. I had to snipt at it and ended up with two too few stitches somehow. I think I could have recovered, but I didn’t like how one side of the toe was looking - too holey, so I frogged.

Any ideas why my chain didn’t unzip or why one side of the toe was too open? (I did notice part way through the short rows I was slipping as if to knit, which I switched to slip as if to purl once I realized. COuld that have anything to do with it?

On July 17th, 2008 at 3:57 pm Jeanne Michael said:

I use a LARGE crochet hook (size H or better) with crochet cotton - smooth string. Chain 5 or 10 more than you want stitches. Starting at the end of the chain, not at the beginning, knit into the back loops of the chain (back bumps, not front braid-looking chain), make 2 or three more stitches than you need for insurance. Before you start to knit, look at the stitches on your needle - how do they look? are they even, or are they stretched out in places? This is the time to correct things and drop an end stitch or two before starting your knitting. When you’re ready to unzip - don’t think of it as zipping, think of it as picking. Use your needle to catch each live stitch as it is released and remember to unzip from the end of the chain, not the beginning. This is not a beginner technique, but it is extremely versitile and, once you get the hang of it, it’s easy!

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