Cast Ons and Their Uses

I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jiz. And this is Pardon My Stash. Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting within the fiber arts and how awesome it is. Before we get into today's topic, let's check out what we're all working on this week, Tina. I am making a very soft beanie. My husband's friend's teenage daughter is dealing with a very aggressive cancer and is going through chemo and he asked me to make a hat for her.

And I honestly just I just looked up a general cast on for Worsted Wade because I'm not putting any texture or anything on. I want to make sure it's very comfortable and soft. So it's just a plain stock knit beanie and I'll figure out the decreases later. I think I've done enough hats at this point that I think I can math it out. The yarn I'm using is Juniper Moon Cumulus in like a soft baby pink

because I was told that that was her favorite color. It's gonna be nice though. That's gonna be real soft for her. Yeah, I think that was a good choice. Thank you. Meg? I am working on a sweater that's called Poema by Vera Sanon. I hope I'm pronouncing that name right. I've been working on this for about a month. I just split for the sleeves today. So I haven't actually been working on it on the podcast because

the sleeves are a little bit tricky. They're my it's my first fingers crossed sweater that has lace pattern sleeves. So I haven't felt comfortable knitting it on on a recording night. But I split for the sleeves and now it's you know tons and tons of stock in it. So I feel like that's something I can handle. I am making it out of a base that we're gonna be releasing soon for Critical Hit. It is a grown-up version of our bard. So it is Extra Fine Superwash Merino and Mulberry Silk.

And I am doing it in the color oh in a DK weight weight not in a fingering weight. And I'm doing it in the color way Bag of Holding. So it's like a burgundy color. I'm really excited because I really like bard for more more more things than just one. But I also just am excited for a DK version of that because I'm tend to do larger weights than the lighter ones. Yeah, we wanted to have a silk in a larger weight and we're really excited to to release that.

That'll probably be either the end of this month or beginning of or not end of this month. This end of month is over end of December beginning of January probably. Jess what you got? I am working on the rose hip sweater by Ana Joanna. I'm at the hem and then I get to pick up some sleeves. And I'm using Critical Hit Dyes Ranger in Namira and a custom fade. Dreya? I am doing another Keon hat by Emily Green. It's a Hudson and West pattern. And I am using Groovy Who's Shazabrick.

No really that's the name of it. I swear. Yeah, I'm using Brick House. It's a DK weight. It's like I mean it's it's a brick color. It's nice. I like it. Not making it for anything in particular. I just needed something to do. I did finish the minted hat by Andrea Mowry recently so I needed something new to do. And it came out very pretty. It did come out really nice. I have some testing going on next week and we're gonna find out if I'm allergic to alpaca. No. Fingers crossed.

I don't think it is the alpaca. I don't think so either. I'm still not going to be wearing it. I'm going to have to look into if like alpaca allergies are contagious. Sorry. I'm looking at you guys. No I'm looking at Meg because I thought I was okay and then Meg informed me that I was allergic. It's been a chain reaction here. I probably was allergic the whole time and I just never realized I was allergic. My eyes itch and my nose is itchy and my hands are red. I must have inhaled something.

I'm just like I'll just keep knitting. Whatever I've got it's more severe than that. Yeah definitely. So fingers crossed that it isn't fiber arts related. Be sure to check out our website PardonMyStash.com for more information as well as pictures regarding our current projects, patterns and yarns.

This week we're going to talk about casting on. Not just like new projects. For fish? What? For fish. No. It's just casting. Oh knitting right. That's what we talk about. Continue. This is a fiber arts podcast. I mean you can knit and crochet with fishing line. I'm just throwing that out there. We are going to talk about the cast on. What types we use. When we use them. Which ones we don't like. Well as I like my metal I also like my twisted German cast on. That's a long tail right? It is.

It's kind of an extra movement. It gives it a little bit more elasticity so that it's extra stretchy. I haven't had a situation where I don't need something stretchy yet. That's fair. I've been sticking with that. So I typically use long tail for almost everything. Just the standard long tail because I find it to be stretchy enough. I haven't done the German twist cast on yet. It's very good for... I was turned on to it by a pullover sweater with a very tight collar. So up to your neck.

When you have a collar like that you need to be able to really open it up to get it on. To get it over your head. Since then I'm just like well why not? Why not? Have you found any projects at all where you regret using that cast on? Probably flats. So like washcloths, blankets. They don't need that. And then it distorts the yarn a little bit. Because then if you're doing something that doesn't really anticipate the stretch it just kind of stretches out in ways you don't want it to be.

Indefinitely and making things like lumpy. Yeah. It just makes it look weird. But most of the things I do are accessories and mitts and hats and cowls. You kind of want a little bit of stretch there. So that's what I tend to do. What's your go to cast on, Meg? Oh, long tail. 100%. I use it for pretty much everything. I'm not very adventurous in the cast on's. But the other one that I really do like and of course you can only use it in specific projects is garter tab.

I don't think I've ever done a garter tab. Really? I actually really enjoy it. Because you need to do those for if you're doing like a half moon project. Like a shawl. I like. I have done a garter tab. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. I really thought to myself, I was like, how has she made all these shawls and never made a garter? I think it's because I don't think that it registered in my head that that was what I was doing. And also it doesn't.

I love garter tab because it comes out looking completely different from what it starts as. It doesn't look like garter at all when you're done with it. You know, when it's like cast on three, knit six rows and then pick up the stitches. And I remember the first time I did it, I was like, this is madness. There is no way this is going to work. Like, what am I doing? And I was making Citron, which is a free pattern by Nitti. I made it for my grandmother.

And I'm sitting there like cursing the pattern up and down, being like, there's no way there's no way this is going to turn into. Oh, there it is. Yeah, I did the same thing when I did the. You're like, this is a joke. Simple lines. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is a joke. There is no way that a square of garter is going to turn into the nape of a shawl. And then all of a sudden, like, ta da, there it is. So I really do love that one just kind of for the like novelty factor of it.

It's almost like a magic trick. Kind of. Yeah. But again, you can only use that for very specific projects. But when it comes to like, you know, every normal everyday project, I'm I'm pretty married to the long tail cast on. I have a funny story about Garter Tab. Yeah. Really quick. First shawl I ever made. Made it for my grandmother. She still uses it to this day and she uses it upside down because I decided I don't need a Garter Tab. And I completely went without it.

Don't ask me how I figured it out. But what happened was is instead of this nice little flat shawl, it has a tent in the middle. What did you do? Did you like cast on a stitch and just I honestly or something? I think I just literally like cast on and then just like started the pattern. Like I didn't do the Garter Tab. So instead of it being flat, how weird it just went like this. So it's this. But my poor. You know, it worked though. Yeah. I mean, no. Yes. Yes.

But the thing is that grandma loves it. You know, she does wear it all. But she definitely wears it upside down. And every time I see her wearing it, I'm like, you know what? Fair. That's very fair. OK. That's it's an odd. We're going to let that one be. Yep. That's so funny. I do like that one, though. It's fun. I think I like it for the same reason that you do, because it feels like a novelty. Yeah. You're like, there's no way this is going to work out.

I do love that we had the same reaction of like, you know, is this a joke? Who is pranking me with this Garter Tab crap? I feel like I had to ask you for help. I remember you asking and I kept telling you, no, it's going to work. Like, just trust the process. And you were so confused. Yeah. Because you didn't actually like give me like any like there was no additional instruction. There are no additional instructions. I know.

Like there can't be. It's literally cast on three, knit like six rows, pick them all up. And it does. It sounds like it shouldn't work. But it does. And if you do it correctly. And there really isn't. That's the other beautiful thing is you really can't screw it up. It's very hard to really screw up a good Garter Tab. OK. No, you didn't screw it up. You just didn't do it. There's a difference. That's just straight omission.

You really can't mess up a Garter Tab cast on. So when I started knitting, I did backwards loop for everything. I did backwards loop exactly one time. I did it for like four years. I did it for like 12 years. And then like everything that I cast on had this horribly uneven edge. That's the problem with the backwards loop. And then I would see people and I'm like, how is their edges so neat? You know what? Like honestly, if for casting on mid project, that's like one of your best ones.

Oh, yeah. That's the only one you really can do. Like it's really hard. That is the one. I mean, there is other than backwards loop. I might be wrong with it. It's like I think it's called a cable cast on. Yep. Yes. And you could do that mid project, too. Yes, you can. But it's a little bit trickier. I was trying to look at it because I usually use the long tail or the German long tail.

I do use that one. But I was like, I know there's another one that I've used multiple times and I couldn't remember what it was. And it is the cable cast on. And I always have to look up how to do it because I always forget how to do it. But it does make a very nice, neat edge. Yeah, like it really does. And I forget it's it's not stretchy, though. No, it is not. You don't use that one for. But I have seen people recommend it for like armpits for sweaters.

Yeah. Well, it gives you a neat. It does give you a neater edge. So and there's less of a hole to fix. Yeah. But at the same token, it is not stretch. Yeah. So if you don't. So if it doesn't have any give, if you have any kind of issue with your better not have a tight arm hole. I need stretchy arm holes. Yeah. So but those are really good for if you're making someone that needs structure.

Like if you're making like, you know, I don't know, a dishcloth. I don't know. I'm trying to think of things that are like more stiff. A bag. A bag. Yeah. If it has a flat edge. Yeah. Honestly, if you're doing a shawl or something and you want a clean edge, it looks nice on those because you don't really. It does need a stretch for that. I think one of my my favorites cast ons that I have learned how to do,

but I don't use enough is Judy's magic cast on. Have you guys done that? Yes. It's like so perfect. I just want to know where all these ladies came from and why they couldn't give it a name rather than name it after themselves. Because there's cast offs too that have like there's Jenny's, you know, and they're all like random lady names. I like Jenny's cast off flat, flat out. If I ever, which I won't. But if I ever make a cast on.

It's going to be Meg's. Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. I will keep my name. Yes. 100%. I mean, why not? You're doing all the work. You know what, Judy? Shout out to Judy. Good job, Judy. Good job. But it is such a good cast on. Like you don't see the cast on and it's just seamless. It is. I've never done it. It's like it's like the knitting has just begun. Yeah. No, no, no breaks. Just it's amazing. I feel the same way about tubular cast on. I don't know if you've ever done tubular, but it does.

It does. It makes this cute like rolled edge. Yeah. And it also is like where the hell did this just cast on? It doesn't have it's gone. Like there's no it's just a continuous kind of roll, which is really pretty on garments. I have seen it, but I have not done a tubular myself. It is a pain in the butt though. Yeah, I have looked it up and I and at the time when I was considering using a tubular cast on, I decided not to. Yeah, there's one tutorial, only one that does that tutorial well.

And I don't know if it's because she uses a nice solid background against yellow yarn, so it's very easy to see what she's doing. But I also feel that she explains it in a way that makes a lot of sense. It's from YouTube user TenRoseAday. And you'll know it if you see a teal background with yellow yarn, because it's really, really distinct.

Not only does she do a really good explanation in the beginning, it's not like a beginning episode where she's like, oh my God, I got this and we're going to learn this. Like she actually does right into a technical explanation of what it's for. I love tutorial videos that just get right to the point. You don't want to stare at a pair of hands like moving around for like five minutes before they finally get to picking up the yarn and doing it. It drives me crazy.

The video starts on her and she's explaining why you would use it and the purpose of it, like why it's a better use for certain projects. And then the tutorial she does, not only does she do it, but she repeats it. So like she'll do a step, she'll repeat it like four or five times and then she moves on. So it's not like one of those things where you have to keep rewinding to see what she did. So I just really enjoy that.

I used the tubular cast on for my Oldenburg sweater and it came out really well. So that's the teal one. On the collar. I did it. I gave up on the bottom. On the cow. Actually, no, I didn't get it. I did. I cast off tubular as well, but it came out. I missed so many stitches. I messed up so bad. And there's a bunch of like knots of me just holding yarn together. I respect that.

But yeah, no, tubular is definitely more complicated, but has definitely has its place if you want a certain type of look for your cast on. I like my crochet cast on. It's either a chain or magic circle. I prefer the magic circle if I'm working in the round instead of doing a chain and then joining it. I prefer the magic circle. But what is the benefit to the magic circle? For me, it is easy because the way you do it, you can pull it tight so there's no hole in the middle.

So it works great for my little stuffed creatures. If I'm doing something that needs like, like you want that like hole in the middle, sometimes doing the chain cast on and then joining it is better because you can kind of force that to be there. But if you don't want that, if you do the magic circle and you pull it, it like closes up completely. And it's fun. It's like magic. Every time I do a chain, I it always comes out so loose. My tension is horrible.

Oh, mine's horrible because they're like, OK, cast on 30 stitches and it should be like 24 inches and I cast on 30 stitches and it's like the length of my finger. And I'm like, I really need to loosen my tension here. I'm kind of like, yeah, meanwhile, mine is 300 feet long and out the door. How often do you crochet? Well, I actually I've been doing it more often with my youngest daughter.

Is she for some reason thinks I can teach her how to crochet? I have I keep telling her you need to ask Dragon Jess. I cannot help you. I just wing it, man. Well, that's kind of what I'm doing. I'm going like, it kind of looks like this. Yeah, this looks right. It's all good. Oh, God. What pattern was that? It was the one that we sent you that we were doing. And it's the only crochet pattern that I have ever done because I do not crochet. Oh, the granny square.

It was a granny square. I think it was called Ann's Puff Square. Yes. There is an amazing tutorial for that on YouTube. So that and if I can follow it, she can follow it. OK, because I don't crochet at all. And it teaches you a lot of different stitches. It really does. It's like the half crochet, the single, the double, the triple. It definitely does the double. It does the puff stitch. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different techniques in that one square, which is why I really liked it.

But I thought the tutorial was actually really, really good, really helpful. Tina, I know you do a lot of brioche. Yes, ma'am. Have you done the Italian cast on? Thanks. So fun. The tubular cast on. It is the Italian cast on. They are one in the same. No. Yes, they are. Are they? Are they? Yep. I could I could be wrong. I read something that they were the same thing. No. Yeah. Long tail tubular, also known as Italian. I'm not incorrect. It's from the same lady. She taught me that.

They do that. Like, I know German cast on has another name. And it's like, oh, yeah, I know this and this. And they're like, they're the same thing. Yeah, yeah. That just like blew my mind. Do you know what I think it is? I watched a different video and they called it an Italian cast on. Well, they called it an Italian cast on, but it also looked different from how I remember seeing

the tubular cast on. I wonder if it's just based on like because there's a couple different ways you could do tubular. So maybe that's why. But it's the same effect. So maybe that's why. Maybe Italian is one of those few ways, but it can. It's essentially tubular and it makes that lack of edge. Yeah. Yeah. It gives you an invisible cast on edge. This is this is like when people say to me, but have you tried Greek knitting? And I'm like, it is Portuguese. We are we are doing the same thing.

We are doing the same thing. It is called the same thing. I don't know why Portuguese ended up being the word, but like Greek knitting and same thing. Same exact. At least as far as Greek people don't take me out, I just as least as far as I know, when I have talked to other people who are doing Greek and they shown it to me, it is the exact same style of throwing it on your neck and taking the tension from up top rather than on your down below.

So I could be wrong with Greek people want to take me down. Like, feel free to take me down. I also think it depends on who you're talking to for for how you're how you're calling it. But that literally just like blew my mind. Because I'm not going to lie, like before we started recording here, like I was at home. I got home a little bit early because I had an appointment and I was looking at the video for the Italian cast on by the artist.

And I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh, this is like and I was trying it out for myself and I was like, oh, this is like this is so easy. Like I said, tubular can be done a couple of slightly different ways. And maybe that slightly different way worked for you. Maybe. Yeah. I'm just wondering, I am curious now because she, the person that I watched, called it is also known as Italian. So I'm wondering if she's doing it the way that you like.

I don't know. Maybe I'll have to look. We'll have to find out. Tune in next time. But I was going to say if it's not a cast on that you're using for your brioche, I would probably recommend it. Really? Yeah. That's not how I cast on for brioche. Why would you recommend it for brioche? Because you don't see that that edge, especially like if you're doing two color. You don't see that. Oh, I see. It gives it a no none of this. Well, sometimes you want the solid color edge.

But I could see I see what you mean. If you want it to look like there is no solid color edge. Yeah. I could see. Yeah, that would make sense. Yeah. Like I think that that is something that I would consider using moving forward for two color brioche. But in my head, I'm going like if you're setting it up because there's a setup with brioche, right? You have to do one or two. It's passing me. I haven't done brioche in a hot minute.

But you have to do a setup round or two. I can't remember if it's one or two. And then after you do that, then you're set up to go for actually. No, it's I usually cast on. That's why I'm thinking it's two. I cast on. I do the setup row. And then I'm doing the actual brioche piece of it. Yeah. But in my head, I'm going like with tubular. I don't know how that would work because you would do the cast on that's tubular. You'd still have to do the setup row, though.

And that setup row is typically what is that solid border that you're seeing. Now, now I want to mess with a swatch. And no, I just knew she was going to vomit. Did you did you test the brioche part or no? I only had one color, so I have to see how that would look with two colors. But I think I think it's something that I would be willing to try for my next brioche because I've got a brioche pattern that I want to do coming up.

That's two colored, so I'd be interested to see how it would look with a different cast on. Yeah, now now I'm like because I have that high viscowel pattern I made. I want to see if I try it on that because it does have the I like the edge on that. It kind of makes it a nice little pretty picture. But I'd be interested to see that seamless to you haven't said you haven't said anything about cast ons for specific projects.

Like we've mentioned it briefly, but you could talk about like if you're doing a hat, it should always be something like this. Or if you're doing a blanket, it should whatever something like that. I know that for hats, I do prefer doing the long tail cast on. And that's only because I know that with the long tail cast on, you get the cast on and your first row. So it makes it a lot easier to see whether or not your stitches are twisted.

That's literally the worst part about knitting anything in the round. I know anything, especially something that has a ton of stitches. You get like halfway through and you're like, I'm knitting a Mobius strip. Let me just yank that all out and start over again. I question my decisions because I totally still want to knit this project now that I did that. You're sitting there thinking, can I like attach it and just keep going? There is a way that you can. It involves staking.

You can't stick it and twist it. Why go that far? Just undo it, man. Unless you went the whole way, not realizing it. I don't see a reason to stick. I agree. I 100 percent agree. But I'm not going to lie. There have been a fair number of hats that I have cast on that were definitely twisted. And then I get to the end of the row on like the second row or something. And I just like untwist it. Yeah. But then there's like that little that little swoop. There's that dip. Yeah.

There's that divot. It's a feature. Yeah, it's a feature. But if you're at that point, you can pull it down. You know that, right? Like you could pull down to the cast on at that one point and redo it. I will not do that. OK, I'm just saying. Round two. It's called a divot cast on and divot. It's called Dreya's Divot Cast on. OK, we're using names. Dreya, you claimed it. Congratulations. It's a design feature. You know, you could hide it with a tag, a well placed. I will not do that either.

That is exactly where you put the tag. Side note to anyone, if you are making items and someone has put a tag on something, most likely that is where there's the mistake. So are someone who has done that. Me and intellectual. You could call it laziness or you could call it ingenuity. I'm going to go with the second one. I don't know. I just like the pro. Yeah, I'm not going to do that. Never know thyself. I do know myself. OK, there is one more that we haven't talked about, unless this is cable.

It might be cable. It's looking like cable. The crochet cast on for knitting. That is cable, correct? No, you just talked about casting on. Are you talking about the provisional cast on? Oh, the provisional. That's also different. No, provisional is different. You can use a crochet hook for provisional. So I feel I want to say the crochet cast on has a similar look to cable, but it's a different method. Yeah, I'm looking. That's kind of the photos that it looks like.

It looks like it looks very similar, but the way they do it is different. Well, if you also know how to if you're ambidextrous with your crafts, then you could probably use the crochet cast on as well. Or if you're crochet getting into knitting, it's probably going to come very naturally to you to do that one. I haven't I haven't done it, but I had a pattern that called for it. I did cable instead. Like I said, I want to say because it does look similar.

But I do I do think it's like it's the manner of how they get it done is different, but it gives you a very similar look. I straight up looked at it and I was like, I can just do that with cable. I'm just going to do that. But I think that's a really important thing to note is that a lot of times you don't need to live and die by the exact cast on in the pattern. And maybe that sounds like blasphemy.

But I think you could look up like two if you're looking if something looks like, oh, God, I don't want to do that. You could be like, hey, what is similar to this? And you'll probably get right. Well, I think the only thing you really need to be mindful of is is what the end product is going to be like. Yeah. Do you need it to be stretchy? Do you need it to be stiff? Like, what is the intended goal?

And if there really is no real like it doesn't really matter, then you can throw whatever cast on you want. I know there's lots of jokes about like, oh, you know, we're not doing our grandmother's knitting anymore. But guys, most of our grandmothers did one cast on. Yeah. For all the projects that they did backwards loop, man, backwards loop or maybe long tail. But that's the thing. They didn't do a lot of fancy cast ons.

And it's great that we have them. But they definitely got the job done. Right. Exactly. That's and that's the thing. It's like if you're somebody that doesn't want to do a whole bunch of different fancy cast ons, that's fine. You know, just make sure that the intended the either look, the fabric or the appearance is going to be what you're actually looking for. I like patterns that say this is the cast on I use. But just you can also use any stretchy or you can use any stiff or whatever.

Like it tells you like whatever you're comfortable with. Just it needs to have this kind of effect. Right. Because then you know what they're trying to go for. Right. And a lot of times, especially if you're really excited to do a project, I don't know, figuring out a new cast on kind of harsh as your vibe and you're not as excited about the project when you've spent, you know, half an hour trying to fiddle with a new cast on.

So which is why I think that I always stick with the old reliable until cast on. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Ninety percent of the time, I don't even look at what the cast on is. I just throw in long tail and call it good. The stitches on the needle. Good. Yeah. Fantastic. That's all I care about. Yeah, I'm awful because it's not long tail. I'm like, what's that stretchy one I used again? Like I know I've done it eight thousand times, but how do I do that again?

Yeah. Provisional is also something that's important, though. I think that's a that is a cast on. I don't think you can swap out. No, like if you're going to graft something. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to make it really hard. Yeah. I had to do a provisional for the Adventures sweater. Yeah. That I did. And let me tell you, I was so scared to pull that live. Yeah. Stitches on that needle. Yeah. I was so scared when I when I was doing I do not like it because I am.

I'm like, oh, God, what if I lose one? Especially because you get up again. Well, especially because you put in like so much effort in putting. I mean, at least for my sweater, I had to do a decent amount. Yeah. Before you pull out, we pull out the provisional cast on and. It was not a fun time. It's intimidating. It's intimidating. It was really intimidating to do that. I get so scared every time I have to do it. That is my least favorite cast on.

But for the design that you were dealing with, I. Necessary. Yeah. I don't know of another way that you would do that. No. I have seen people do like a regular cast on and they're like, I'm going to pick this up. And it does not look the same. Number one. But the other thing, too, is it's way more work for yourself. Trying to light. Yeah. Yeah. Way, way, way more work to it. It does not look the same. No, it does not. Not even close.

Even if you pick it up and you're really good at picking up stitches, it doesn't look. You kind of get a seam or something. Yeah, it does. It looks very seamy. Right. I will definitely take the adrenaline crash when I'm done. It is high stakes for me. I do not like. I'll do it. I like it. I will not enjoy it. That's all the time we have for this week's topic. For additional content and opportunities to connect with the cast, check out our website at PardonMyStache.com.

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