[NFB-Krafters-Korner] Really confused about how to do the long tail cast on.

[Tracy Carcione]

Maria's explanation sounds good to me.  
I find it helpful to think of my left thumb as a needle.  I put a loop on it, with a little twist, as if I was doing the most basic cast-on that's just flipping loops over the needle.  Then I knit that stitch off my thumb onto the right needle.  Hope that makes sense.

The way I try to get the right amount of yarn in my long tail for all my stitches is to wrap the yarn around the needle as many times as I need stitches, at about the same tension as my knitting.  Then I hold the place where I stopped with 2 fingers, unwrap the yarn with the other hand, and put my slip knot at the place where I'm holding the yarn.  It kinda works, but I often have to do the cast-on a couple times to get it to come out right.  Which is why I'm changing to a knitted cast-on, which doesn't require that tricky estimate.
Tracy


-----Original Message-----
From: NFB-Krafters-Korner [mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Ari via NFB-Krafters-Korner
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2019 3:28 AM
To: Crafter's Corner Email List
Cc: englishrider91 at gmail.com
Subject: [NFB-Krafters-Korner] Really confused about how to do the long tail cast on.

The following instructions are from Chicks with Sticks, and they're extremely baffling! Can someone please help with this? Arrgh!

1. Make a slip knot but leave a tail that is long enough to accommodate the number of stitches required by your pattern.
2. Holding the needle in your right hand, position the tail toward you and the yarn ball away from you. Place the forefinger and thumb of your left hand between both yarn ends and enclose the ends with the rest of your hand. The yarn will resemble a triangle. Now point your forefinger and thumb upward and angle the needle downward, so that now it resembles a slingshot.

3. Insert the needle underneath the loop on your thumb and then insert the needle through the loop wrapped around your forefinger from the top. Next, flip the loop from your thumb over the needle. This will create one stitch on your needle. Pull gently on the yarn that is attached to the ball to tighten the loop on your needle, remembering that you should be able to slide your stitches up and down the needle easily; this will ensure that you have the correct tension on your stitches.


4. Repeat step 3 until you have the required number of stitches on your needle.
5. Transfer the needle with your cast-on stitches to your left hand, and you are ready to begin knitting!
CHEEP TRICKS
We like to break down this cast-on method into a few simple steps to remember; we’ve found that repeating "thumb, finger, over" in our heads often does the trick. Nancy taught her daughter how to cast on by using this little ditty: "The bunny comes out of the hole, jumps over the fence, and hops back in his hole.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but all I end up with is some yarn wrapped around my needle after the slipknot, and no stitch. If I pull on the ball end of the yarn, the whole thing, except the slip knot, comes undone.


Thanks,
Ari
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