Entrelac Cast-on

When I starting making the first of several Garterlac Dishcloths, I came up with a method of casting on which works really well for entrelac. It's a crochet cast-on worked directly onto the knitting needle with an extra chain between each stitch. This produces a cast-on edge which is neat and firm, yet the stitches are spaced as though they'd been cast on very loosely.

Here's how it's done:

1. Leaving a short tail (long enough to be woven in later), tie a slip knot and place it on a crochet hook which is approximately the same millimeter size as your knitting needles.
2. Hold the crochet hook in your right hand and a knitting needle as well as the working yarn in your left hand (Continental knitting style).
3. Take the yarn behind the knitting needle, bring the crochet hook in front of the knitting needle, and pull a loop through the loop on the hook -- one stitch cast onto the needle.

4. With the yarn still in front of the knitting needle, pull a loop through the loop now on the hook -- one extra chain made.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have cast on one less than the total number of stitches needed (ending with step 4).
6. Leave the yarn in front of the needle or bring it behind the needle as needed for your first stitch and then slip the last loop from the hook to the knitting needle.

Although I've only used this cast-on for entrelac so far, I would imagine that it would also work well for ripple stitch patterns or for any situation where the cast-on edge needs to be much longer than normal given the number of stitches involved.

tags: knitting  cast on