casting on... and on... and on...

Happy Spring! I was going to post today about the new spring-y top I am making, but, of course, it isn't finished yet. Here's a work-in-progress photo.


The pattern is an original Suzy Smalls design and the fabric is Cherry Blossom Geisha by Lonni Rossi for Andover Fabrics. I really can't wait til it's done and on my body but in the meantime I've got a bunch of other projects going and in spite of that, I've cast on another.


I'm excited to be making the Puff Sleeved Feminine Cardigan from Stefanie Japel's first book Fitted Knits. Like all of Stefanie's sweaters it's a top-down knit, which I really like. It just make sense to start at the neck and work your way down, (rather than knit a bunch of separate pieces and sew them together later) and also makes it easier to try on during the knitting process, guaranteeing the perfect fit. Anyway, I decided to cast on for this cute cardigan this morning and that's about as far as I got. I ended up casting on several times, different ways, to see which one worked and I liked best. Here's what I tried and where I was having issues:

Long tail cast on:
I like this method, but find that my long tail cast on edge often looks sloppy and uneven. When the edge is at the bottom of a sweater or along the brim of a hat (which will be stretched) I can usually get over this and don't even notice when it's done, BUT since this edge is going to be on the collar, I feel it will be a bit more noticable and needs to look good! so I tried some other ways...

Cable Cast on and Knitted Cast on:
I see a lot of knitters use a knitted cast on and I found it was very easy and made a lot of sense to my fingers. The cable cast on not so much -- I think I cast on too tightly for this method. The only trouble I had with the knitted cast on was that, since I tend to cast on tight, I upped the needle size (I do this all the time with the long tail cast on) that way my fist row of stitches isn't impossible to knit. This seemed to leave my first row looking, well, a little hole-y. too loose perhaps??


I don't know.... am I making too big a deal out of the this? I probably am. When the entire sweater is knit and done and worn over a cute little summer dress will I really be looking at the collar in the mirror thinking "oh my golly, what a horrible cast on!!!!" or will it all just blend in and look ok and probably have bigger mistakes that overshadow it anyway (haha).

Either way this was a fun chance to learn some different cast on methods.
What cast on do you prefer? When do you find one works well over another? share your thoughts if you wish. I'd love to hear them!

In the meantime, enjoy the first day of spring!!