A New Technique For The New Year January 16, 2014 – Posted in: How to, Thursday This and That

As a subsequent post to my last – well, not that any post wouldn’t be – I have an addendum to my hat talk. On Monday I started a new class, we are knitting the “Seasons Hat” by Brooklyn Tweed. This is the perfect project to get started with colour knitting, since it only takes up 27 rows of the hat, so there is space to pick up another interesting technique.
I have used the tubular cast-on before, it is a bit more involved than any other regular cast-on but in my opinion well worth it. There are several methods to do this cast-on, I normally only use the yarn I work with, for first-timers the waste yarn method is easier.

IMG_9334Tubular Cast-On.

This method of casting on is meant for knitting in the round. For knitting flat, the instructions are slightly different!

With a different coloured yarn the same weight as the yarn intended for your hat pattern, cast on half the stitches required. For example, if the pattern asks for 80 stitches, cast on 40. As the tubular cast on is intended for rib – be it 1×1 or 2×2 – half of the stitches is always possible.

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With working yarn, *knit 1, yo; rep from * to end. It is important to keep the yo at the end, make sure you do not lose it when closing the stitches to a round.

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Draw stitches around needle – it will be a bit tight, yet should be manageable – and close to round by slipping the first stitch with yarn in back (wyib) and purling the yarn over. All stitches are slipped purl wise, just to move them, not to twist them. As mentioned before, make sure not to lose your last yo! *Sl1 wyib (knit stitches), purl yo; repeat from * to end of round. Here you might want to place a stitch marker for beginning of round – I did not.

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Purl the last yo as the others before.

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Next round: *knit1, sl1 wyif (knit the knit stitches, slip the purl stitches with yarn in front); rep from * to end of round.

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Next (and last round of cast-on) round: *sl1 wyib, p1 (slip the knit stitches with yarn in back, purl the purl stitches; rep from * to end of round.

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There. That’s it. Starting with the following round you work 1×1 rib as usual.

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Here’s the fun part. (Make sure you only cut the cast-on!) With your trusty pair of scissors, cut the waste yarn and remove it.

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Work your hat as you would.

Happy knitting, as ever!

– Mona