How to Cast On in Knitting: Five Methods Worth Knowing

The cast-on is the first row of stitches you put on the needle. There are thirty-some cast-on methods in common use; five of them handle almost every knitting situation you'll meet. The rest are specialty solutions for problems most knitters never have.

This guide covers those five. Two of them (long-tail and knitted) handle 90% of projects. Cable gives you a defined edge when you want one. The last two (provisional and tubular) solve specific construction problems that come up later in sweaters and socks.

Which one to learn first

If you're learning to knit and need exactly one cast-on, learn long-tail. It's elastic enough for socks, neat enough for blankets, and it's the cast-on every pattern assumes by default unless it says otherwise.

If long-tail is fighting you on day one, learn knitted cast-on instead. It's the easiest to understand mechanically (it's a knit stitch placed back on the left needle), and you can build any project on it. The edge is less elastic and slightly less tidy than long-tail, which doesn't matter for your first three or four projects.

Skip the rest until a pattern asks for them.

Long-tail cast-on

The default. Elastic, neat, faster than the others once your hands know it.

How it works

You start with a length of yarn three times longer than the cast-on edge will be. The "long tail" of yarn forms one side of each new stitch while the working yarn forms the other. Two strands working at once is what makes it faster than methods that use only the working yarn.

Steps

1. Estimate the tail: roughly one inch per stitch in worsted weight (so 30 inches for a 30-stitch cast-on), plus six inches of margin. For thicker yarn, leave more. For thinner yarn, less.
2. Make a slip knot at that point, with the tail hanging off one side and the working yarn off the other. Place it on the needle. This counts as your first stitch.
3. Hold the needle in your right hand. With your left hand, drape the tail over your thumb and the working yarn over your index finger, both held down with your remaining fingers. This is the "slingshot" hold.
4. Bring the needle tip up under the front strand of the thumb loop.
5. Over the top to catch the front strand of the index-finger loop.
6. Back down through the thumb loop.
7. Drop the thumb loop and tighten by spreading your thumb and index finger apart.

That is one cast-on stitch. Repeat from step 4 until you have the number you need.

Where it goes wrong

Running out of tail mid-cast-on. Either restart with more, or finish the remaining stitches with knitted cast-on and accept that the edge will look slightly different at the end.

Edge too tight. Common with new knitters. Cast on over two needles held together, then pull one out before knitting the first row. Or step up one needle size for the cast-on row only.

A project to practice on

The first thirty stitches of a garter-stitch scarf. After ten or twenty rows you can decide whether your tension settled in; if not, frog and redo. Long-tail is the cast-on most often redone before the first row, and that's normal.

Knitted cast-on

The easiest cast-on to understand. Every new stitch is a knit stitch placed back on the left needle.

Steps

1. Make a slip knot and place it on the left needle.
2. Insert the right needle into the slip knot as if to knit.
3. Wrap the yarn and pull a loop through.
4. Without dropping the slip knot off the left needle, place that new loop onto the left needle next to the slip knot.
5. You now have two stitches on the left needle. Insert the right needle into the new stitch and repeat steps 3 and 4.

The motion is: knit a stitch, put the new stitch back on the left needle. Knit a stitch, put it back. Once you can knit, you can do this without thinking about it.

When to use it

• Your very first knitting attempt, if long-tail isn't clicking on day one.
• Adding stitches mid-project (for buttonholes, for a sleeve extension, etc.). Knitted cast-on is the standard way to add stitches partway through.
• Patterns that explicitly call for it.

The edge is looser and less defined than long-tail. For a scarf or blanket, that's fine. For a sock cuff or sweater hem, you want long-tail or cable.

Cable cast-on

A firmer, neater edge than long-tail. Used when you want the cast-on row to look like a small twisted cord.

Steps

The first two stitches are the same as knitted cast-on:

1. Make a slip knot on the left needle.
2. Knit into it and place the new stitch onto the left needle.

For the third stitch and every one after, the change is:

1. Insert the right needle between the two stitches on the left needle (not into either one).
2. Wrap the yarn, pull a loop through that gap.
3. Place the new loop on the left needle.

You're inserting between stitches every time instead of into a stitch. That small change is what creates the cable-twist appearance.

Where to use it

Edges where definition matters: blanket borders, bag tops, cardigan button bands. The edge has less give than long-tail, so it's a bad choice for ribbed cuffs and sock tops that need to stretch.

Provisional cast-on (crochet chain method)

A cast-on that you remove later. You knit into a temporary chain of waste yarn; when the project is far enough along, you pull the chain out, and the original cast-on stitches come live on a needle so you can work in the opposite direction.

Three situations call for it:

• Top-down sweaters where you knit the body downward and then go back to add a collar or hem.
• Folded hems: cast on, knit a turning row at the fold, knit the public side, then graft the live stitches to the cast-on edge.
• Anywhere a pattern says "provisional cast-on."

Steps

1. With waste yarn in a contrasting color, crochet a chain about ten stitches longer than your cast-on count. Tie a knot at the loose end so you can tell which end to pull from later.
2. Look at the back of the chain. You'll see a row of small bumps running down the middle of each chain stitch.
3. With your knitting yarn and needle, insert into one bump and knit a stitch. Then the next bump, and the next, until you have the right number of stitches on the needle.
4. Knit the project normally.
5. When it's time to pick up the cast-on edge, find the knot end of the waste chain and pull. The chain unzips and the original stitches drop onto a spare needle, live and ready to work.

The first time you do this it feels improbable. The chain really does unzip, and the live stitches really are ready to knit.

Tubular cast-on

The professional finish on ribbed edges, especially sock cuffs and sweater necklines. It produces an elastic edge with no visible cast-on row; the rib appears to continue around a fold.

It's two or three times more work than the others. Don't learn it for your first ribbed cuff. Learn it when a long-tail cuff on a sock is binding at your ankle or a long-tail neckline on a sweater is too tight to pull over your head.

The construction varies by source, but every version follows the same logic: cast on provisionally, knit a few rows of stockinette, fold the work in half along a turning row, then start the ribbing using stitches from both the live row and the picked-up cast-on edge. The fold is what gives the elasticity.

There are good free written tutorials and several detailed video walkthroughs online. Set aside an evening and one ball of waste yarn; expect to swatch it twice before it makes sense.

FAQ

How long should the tail be for long-tail cast-on?

One inch per stitch in worsted weight, plus six inches of margin. Half an inch per stitch in fingering weight. Two inches per stitch in bulky. If you're not sure, leave more; you can always cut the excess.

Can I substitute a different cast-on than the pattern specifies?

For most patterns, yes. Cable instead of long-tail or vice versa won't change anything important. The exceptions: provisional cast-on (the whole point is the live stitches you'll work later), tubular cast-on (when the pattern wants that elastic edge), and any cast-on the pattern's notes section explicitly justifies.

Why is my cast-on edge tighter than the rest of the knitting?

It almost always is for new knitters. The fix is either casting on over two needles held together (then pulling one out before the first row), or casting on with a needle one size up from the project. Don't try to consciously loosen your grip; tension corrects itself with practice better than with concentration.

A project to cast on next

If you've just learned long-tail and want a project that uses it as written:

One Row Handspun Scarf

Find this pattern on HoneyBee

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Worsted weight, US 8 needles, garter-based with a small slip-stitch repeat that keeps it from feeling monotonous at row 200. Cast on 25 stitches with long-tail, knit straight, bind off. If your cast-on row is a little wobbly, the scarf wears the wobble as character, and you'll cast on cleaner next time.

Related guides

• How to Knit for Beginners
• How to Read a Knitting Pattern
• Knitting Supplies for Beginners
• Knitting vs Crochet
• Free Knitting Patterns for Beginners

For yarn weight standards (which determine needle size and cast-on tail length), the Craft Yarn Council's yarn weight system is the universal reference.

Learn long-tail. Practice on a scarf. Come back for cable and provisional when a project asks for them.