Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Knitting Cast On Nightmares

Oh boy this week has been a crazy one, with the American Presidential election and Donald Trump becoming President. Last night though my Mum and I got a little cast on crazy. Yes we've been trying out different cast ons trying to find the tightest and smoothest one possible for a super secret project I'm working on. I'm not spoiling anything but it requires I cast on as if casting on for a toe up sock. We were up all night trying to figure out these cast ons so it's been kind of a nightmare.


This is the first of the cast ons I attempted, It's alright I guess but it's baggy and not that pretty. This cast on was done using a finger and two needles, wrapping the yarn around my finger and slipping the stitches back and forth onto each needle until I had the same amount on each needle.

We've been scouring the internet, wracking our brains with all sorts of cast ons. We attempted ones like Judy's Magic Cast on and some other provisional cast ons but they require you to do such crazy and awkward movements with your hands. These are not bad cast ons by any means any if you can do these then that's great but our hands can't handle it.



We made a bit of a knitting needle explosion with all these testers, I mean look at all these needles, It's like Attack of the Needles, coming soon to theaters worldwide.

Despite the nightmare and the hair pulling we seem to of found one cast on that not only has smooth pretty looking stitches but also is easy on our hands. It's a provisional cast on but it actually uses a crochet hook! Yeah surprising huh?


Well you start off by grabbing some scrap yarn, my mum recommends cotton as it doesn't fray. Make a slipknot onto the CROCHET hook, not the knitting needle, then you wrap the yarn around the back of the needle. Then using the crochet hook, grab onto the yarn, twist it, and pull it through the slipknot. You keep repeating this until you have the amount of stitches you want on the needle.


See you're making a chain with the crochet hook but it also leaves the cast on loops on the needle. After this is done you just knit through the loops like normal with the yarn you're using for the main project, not scrap yarn.


Once you knit too the end, turn and purl back and then knit back again.


Now once you've done all that you go ahead and start pulling the scrap yarn off but making sure, using your second needle, you pick up ALL the stitches on the row above your scrap yarn. We actually goofed up slightly on that part and our needles ended up facing the opposite ways of each other.


Yeah it was a bit of a whoopsie but mum fixed it and now it's ready for you to start knitting in a round, either for a toe up sock or a baggie. 


I believe this is the easiest cast on for knitting toe up and also the nicest looking cast on as well, no weird criss cross patterns or baggie holes. Mum and I are going to keep practicing this cast on so we can start work on my secret project. You will be hearing about this project in the future but if I spoil it all at once what would the fun in that be?

So while we were doing all that I also learned how to use a crochet hook for the first time! It was a bit confusing at first and I had issues getting my hands comfortable but after the first few chains I was bombing along, actually I got a bit carried away and made almost 6 inches of chain! I also had a go at Amigurumi but I'm not sure if I will enjoy doing that, it gets super tight and I don't enjoy that.

Anyway that's our little crazy cast on story, knitting can be a bit frustrating at times but with my mum and I both working on this it makes it a little more fun. Hope you enjoyed the blog, it's a bit shorter I guess but I didn't want to go too crazy for today's blog. I voted yesterday of course but it was actually my little sister's first time voting, she was a bit nervous but after figuring out how the polls work I think she really enjoyed herself and feels pretty proud to of voted for the first time. Oh yeah I got the Animal Crossing New Leaf update downloaded and it's brought some pretty cool stuff, a lot of it is locked behind Amiibos but that's not too much of a biggie. I kind of want to do a review like blog/video on it so who knows we'll see. Hope you enjoyed your Wednesday and hope you didn't let this election stress you out too much.

See you on the next blog!

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