This is a great cast on to add to your toolbox! It’s stretchy and it looks good too. Once you get the hang of it, you won’t believe that you didn’t always know this one!

This is a type of long tail cast on, so you’ll only be working with one needle. You hold the needle in your right hand and the yarn is in your left hand.

Step 1: Leaving a long tail (about ½” [1.3 cm] for each stitch to be cast on), make a slipknot and place it on your needle (this counts as the first stitch.)

Step 2: Using your left hand, place your thumb and index finger between the yarn ends so that the working yarn is around your index finger and the tail end is around your thumb. This is just like a long tail cast on. Hold the ends with your other fingers and hold your palm upward, making a V with yarn.

Step 3: Bring the needle in front of the thumb, under both strands around the thumb.

Step 4: Then bring it up through the center.

Step 5: Then bring the needle down through the center of the thumb loop (you’ll now have a loop on your needle) and forward toward you.

Step 6: Now bring the needle up and go down through the loop on your index finger. Grab the strand going to the index finger.

Step 7: Bring the needle back through the loop on the thumb (you’ll need to bend your thumb in order to be able to do this – it’s not very natural-feeling and you’ll need practice before you get it right).

Step 8: Drop the loop off the thumb and, placing the thumb back in the V configuration, tighten up the resulting stitch on the needle.

Repeat Steps 3-8 for the desired number of stitches. Here’s 11 cast on stitches:

Distribute the stitches over your chosen needles and join for working in the round.

Now, take a deep breath because you just did a VERY challenging (but VERY useful) cast on.