I'm confused. Can someone unconfuse me?

I was reading up on tubular cast ons and it says to only cast on half the amount of required stitches. Why only half?

To me that would say I have to increase the next row to include the other half of the required stitches.

Thanks.

Shari

Yep, you do. The initial stitches are cast-on using a waste yarn that you will later remove. As to how you proceed, there are a couple methods, but usually on the first row you do a K1 *yo, k1; repeat from * to end. Then you work tubular st st (k1, sl1 wyif on 1st row; reverse order on 2nd row) for a couple rows. However, if you are looking at the current version of Vogue Knitting Ultimate Knitting Book Tubular Cast-On Version A, I believe the instructions are incorrect (or I'm missing something) because they have no indication of an increase. A good resource is Montse Stanley's Knitter's Handbook. She has a great section on cast-ons. Hope that helps.

Forgot to mention in my original post that there is also an article in the members area by Barbara Scott that is helpful. Also, as with many things in knitting, there are many variations on the tubular cast-on. I've seen at least 7 that I know of. A few even have you cast-on all your stitches to start and some don't require the double knitting. It's worth finding one you like. It has a really nice look.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tweedy,

There's another method for tubular cast-on where you do a provisional cast-on around waste yarn in which you would cast-on the number of stitches you are working. I think I found this method in Katharina Buss's Big Book of Knitting.

There's also an Italian tubular cast on where you cast on the number of stitches you need, and there's no waste yarn used. She has photos as well as video of the technique.

Nancy Wiseman also has a tubular cast on which she recommends for 1x1 rib. I don't have the book here with me, but as I recall you cast on 1/2 the stitches plus 1 onto provision thread. Knit one row, purl one row, knit one row. Then as you purl back, you pick a stitch in the purl bump of the original cast on row.

I just tried this recently on a swatch for the first time, and it makes a great stretchy cast on for ribbing and looks very polished.

Lisa

There is a tubular cast-on in K. Buss's Big Book of knitting done like the Italian tubular using no waste yarn. I am currently in love with it. She also has a way to do a 2x2 rib using this cast on that actually looks good!