The Long-Tail Cast-On

I’m going to introduce you to the cast-on that will become your main workhorse for almost all of your projects to come. It’s much sturdier than the beginner cast-on I teach in the Learn-to-Knit course, since it uses two pieces of yarn to create the edge instead of just one.

It’s also nice and stretchy (if you do it properly). It’s called the Long-Tail Cast-On and it uses (you guessed it), a long tail of yarn to create the stitches.

To do it, you’ll have to estimate the amount of tail you’re going to need – there are a few tricks to this that I’ll explain in the video and below. For now, grab your needles and your yarn, and work along with me as I show you the steps for the long-tail cast-on.

Just so you know – it doesn’t matter if the tail yarn goes over your thumb or over your finger. Either way is fine.

Estimating How Much Tail You’ll Need

Here’s how to estimate how much tail you’ll need, depending on the number of stitches you cast on.

Don’t worry – you’ll start to develop an automatic feel for this as you cast on for more projects. Just keep in mind – it’s better to have too much tail than too little.

In this video I also show you a little trick, based on what you’ve already learned, that you can use in emergencies when you run out of tail (for example on a big project where you wouldn’t necessarily want to start over).

Refresher – A Quick Long-Tail Cast-On Video

Since you won’t be casting on more than once for every project, it takes a while to learn this cast-on by heart. That’s okay.

The video below is a quick review of the technique that you can watch when you need a reminder.

Wonderful. Practice casting on a few more times until the stitches feel even and the edge is stretchy but not loose.