Long Tail Tubular Cast On
Hello! Today we have a newly discovered favourite of mine: the Long Tail Tubular Cast On. I love the neat finishing the tubular cast-ons and bind-offs add to a hem, brim or cuff, but sometimes they can mean a little bit of extra work, which could also be described as "unwillingly to get up from the couch to get an crochet hook or tapestry needle"... The Long Tail Tubular Cast On does not require any special tools, provisional cast-on with scrap yarn, nothing of the sort. However, it can take a little while to get the hang of it and learn to keep our cool when the stitches start moving and twisting around the needles, but with a little bit of practice it is very easy to master. Let's dive in!
1-Wrap the yarn around the needle as many times as the stitch count your pattern calls for, in other words if you want to cast on 10 stitches, wrap the yarn 10 times.
2-Make a slip knot and place it on your right-hand needle. Hold your yarn in a slingshot position with the small tail close to you and around your thumb and the leading yarn away from you and around your index finger.
3-Bring your needle up and under the top strand, as if coming from the outside in a counter-clockwise motion.
4-Bring the needle over and then under the bottom strand, coming from the outside but now in a clockwise motion.
5-Keep going until you go under both strands, coming out at the top strand.
6-You just cast on a purl stitch.
7-Now you are going to go under the bottom strand first, coming from the outside on a clockwise motion.
8-You will bring your needle up between both strands and go over and under the top strand, coming from the outside on a counter-clockwise motion.
9-And without going up, you are going to go under both strands again and come out from the bottom strand.
10-You cast on a knit stitch.
11-Repeat steps 3 to 10 as many times as needed to cast on all the stitches called in your pattern.
12-Turn your work without letting go of the yarn (this cast on unravels very quickly, so be careful) and hold it with your left hand.
13-In this row you can see the knit stitches are mounted with its leading leg on the back, so you will have to untwisted them.
14-To do so, knit them through the back loop.
15-Bring your yarn to the front of your work and slip the next purl stitch purlwise without working it.
16-Bring your yarn to the back of your work again to work the next stitch.
17-Repeat steps 14 to 16 until the end of the row.
18-Turn your work again. Now you can see all your knit stitches should be mounted correctly.
19-Knit one.
20-Bring your yarn to the front of your work and slip the next purl stitch purlwise without working it.
21-Bring your yarn to the back of your work again to work the next stitch.
22-Repeat steps 19 to 21 until the end of the row. That's it! You just worked your Long Tail Tubular Cast On.
If your pattern calls for a 2x2 tubular cast on, you can now rearrange your stitches for a 2x2 rib and/or join to work in the round.
Have you ever tried a tubular cast on? Which method is your favourite? Let me know in the comments below x