How To Easily And Quickly Cast On Your Knitting Using The Thumb Method: 12 Steps
This is where your knitting journey officially begins, casting your yarn onto your needle. Remember to read the steps and watch Vivienne’s tutorial as many times as you need to. Good luck, you got this!
Before you begin, gather your supplies.
Vivienne likes the metal ones, I like Bamboo (choose the ones you are comfortable with)
Watch Vivienne's 'Cast On' Video Tutorial
Step 1: Work out how much yarn tail you need
So with this cast on we need to work with both the yarn tail and the working yarn at the same time to be able to cast on our stitches. We need to work out how much yarn tail we need so, we are going to grab our needle, pop our yarn over the needle for about an inch and we are going to wrap the yarn around our needle the number of stitches we need to cast on so for now we are going to cast on 5 stitches. Grab that point where the end of the 5 stitches are, take everything off our needle.
Step 2: Create a Slipknot (Click here for the Slipknot tutorial)
We're just going to create a slipknot just in there at the point where we had our yarn pinched.
Step 3: Put the Slipknot onto your needle - this is your first cast on stitch - well done!
Pop that slipknot onto your needle and we are going to let the yarn just fall.
Step 4: Check the position of your yarn tail and working yarn
I need you to have a look at the position of your yarn now. We want the yarn tail to be falling from the knot on the left hand side and we want the working yarn to be falling from the knot on the right hand side. If it’s the wrong way around, take it off, turn it over and pop it back on so it’s falling the right way. So we are going to hold the yarn tail in our left hand and the working yarn in our right hand.
Step 5: Loop the yarn with your thumb
Using our left hand, we are going to grab with all our fingers and point our thumb up straight. We’re going to take our thumb forward, down and around clockwise looping up this yarn tail.
Step 6: Scoop the loop with your needle
We are going to take our needle underneath up through the side of our thumb catching this loop.
Step 7: Wrap the working yarn
We are going to take our working yarn forward around the back of the needle and bring it forward in between the thumb and the needle.
Step 8: Remove your thumb
We are going to take out our thumb and we now have a loop.
Step 9: Put the loop over the top of your needle
That loop is going to go over the top of our needle and drop.
Step 10: Tighten up the stitch
Then we’re going to get our yarn tail and we're going to pull it lightly to tighten up that stitch and that is our second ‘cast on’ stitch (Check you out!)
Step 11: Carry on casting on - Grab, loop, scoop, wrap, remove, over the top and pull!
All you have to do is remember the process. Grab the yarn tail with the fingers of your left hand. Loop your thumb round the yarn, scoop your needle underneath, wrap your yarn round the back of the needle (with your right hand) and in between your thumb and the needle, remove your thumb, pop the loop over the top of the needle and lightly pull tight. Once you have finished your 5 stitches you should have enough yarn tail to sew in your ends at the end of your project.
Check you out now! How does that feel? The best thing I found about casting on was that I could easily take it all off and practice again and again until I was confident enough to move on.
Have a look at my first ‘cast on’ here. The image to the left looks really good, it’s all nice and neat, the other two are questionable! It looks ok down the bottom but the top part looks messy. At the end of your project this will be really noticeable as the top part will be loose.
Step 12: Achieve the right look
After you get into a good rhythm and can confidently cast on I want you to take a look at what your stitches look like at the back. I would like you to be aware of this but not to focus and obsess over it. Are your ‘cast on’ stitches all the same size? Do they look neat? What's your tension like? The trick is not to pull too tightly or leave it too loose; you want it to be somewhere in between. If you pull too tightly, you will struggle getting your needle in through the loops, if you leave it too loose you will have big stitches and loose fabric. Have a play around with this and don’t worry too much if you can’t get it quite right, one day you will ‘cast on’ and it will be perfect!
Take a look at my ‘cast on’ here, (ignore the mess of my knit stitch).
Down the bottom it's lovely and neat; I must have pulled it fairly tight. Halfway up it gets loose where I must have changed how tight I was pulling my yarn. Our aim is to get that ‘cast on’ stitch uniform. The same size and tension all the way up. Do not worry about getting that done now though, play around with it but don’t aim to perfect it. Learning the knit stitch and getting used to and practising knitting will help your technique 100%! All you need to be happy with now is that you can cast on.
And that's it. That is all we need to know about how to cast on at the moment. I am not even sure if there is any more to know about it to be honest, I am sure as we progress through all the other steps we will find out! I hope all of this has helped and we are officially ready to learn the ‘Knit Stitch’ so cast on, grab your other needle and let’s go!