Tip of the week: Casting on with double pointed needles

Hand knit sock season is definitely on the way so the next few tips are intended to help.

Your preference for what needles you use to work on on small items in the round, like socks, will depend on your knitting style. Some people like using magic loop with a long circular, some small circulars and some like me will be more comfortable with double pointed needles. 

However, the idea of having more than two needles on the go can be off-putting.

Casting on is no different to any other piece of knitting - you cast all your stitches on to a single needle. There is no need to try to hold extra needles before you're ready to start your first round. 

Next divide your stitches evenly between three (or four) needles by slipping the stitches from one to another.
 

 
Arrange your needles into a triangle (or square for four needles) so that your first cast on stitch is the first one on the left needle. The last cast on stitch is at the tip of the right needle. Slip the last cast on stitch to your left needle. Lift the first cast on stitch over the first one and slip to the right needle. Your stitches are now joined in the round. Now pick up your fourth (or fifth) needle and start knitting along the left needle from your join.

Then keep going in the round.

How to: Three needle cast off

In  my post about neat shoulders I mentioned using short rows shape shoulders and joining the seam using a three needle cast off.

When you shape shoulders using short rows you end up with a set of stitches on a holder rather than cast off stitches. You can join them using the steps below.

1. Return your stitches to needles. Place the two sets of stitches from
the pieces you plan to join on separate needles. I use double pointed
or circular needles to make it ease to line up my stitches.

 

2. Hold the pieces you want to join with right sides together. You want
the two sets of stitches to line up on the parallel needles.

 

3. Insert your needle into a stitch  from each needle. Using a third needle
of the correct size, insert the tip into the first first stitch on the front needle
and then the first stitch on the back needle.

 

4. Knit the two stitches together. Work the two stitches together like a
normal knit stitch. 

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 and cast off one stitch. Work the next two front
and back stitches together in the same way and then pass the back stitch
on the right hand needle over the front one as you would in a normal cast
off. Continue to cast off the pairs of stitches all along your seam.
(Here you can see the row of green cast off stitches along the seam line.)

 

The result - wrong side. On the wrong side you will have a flat line of
cast off stitches along the seam line.

 

The result - right side. Here you can see the very neat join. Where
.you join two pieces of the colour, the join is unobtrusive.

 

Here you can see the final result in the Lily sweater.