What is a provisional cast-on?

A provisional cast-on is any method of starting a piece of knitting that leaves the first row of stitches 'live'. Rather than having a cast-on row with a finished edge, a provisional cast-on means that you can pick up the stitches in the first row later and use them the way you would any other row of live stitches anywhere else in your knitting project.

When to use it:

Because a provisional cast-on creates a row of 'live' stitches, you can go back to your first row and use those stitches to do a number of different techniques that require stitches to be on the working needle.

This is very helpful when you need to graft the cast-on edge to another row, if you need to knit in the opposite direction from the cast-on, or if you are knitting something like a folded hem where you need to connect the cast-on edge to a row further up your project.

Other ways to work a Provisional Cast-On:

Like many knitting techniques, there is more than one way to work this cast-on. To see other options, check out our posts about The Daisy Chain Method and The Spare Cord/Cable Method. All three versions are completely interchangeable so it's 100% knitter's-choice on which one to use.

INSTRUCTIONS

In this method, you will use a crochet hook to essentially create a daisy chain around your kitting needle. It is almost exactly the same end result as The Daisy Chain Method, except instead of having to pick up and knit into the daisy chain, you are building it directly onto your needle in a single step.

To watch my quick video reel, see How to Crochet a Provisional Cast on Directly onto your Needle.

MATERIALS

Everything you need for your knitting project + waste yarn and a crochet hook.

CAST-ON

Start by creating a slip knot with your waste yarn, and placing the slip knot on your crochet hook.

With your knitting needle in one hand, and your crochet hook in the other, cross the tip of the hook in front of the needle. (1)

Wrap the yarn behind the needle and the hook, and then bring it back around to the front of the crochet hook. (2)

Then use your crochet hook to pull that loop of yarn through the slip knot already on the hook. (3)

Continue adding stitches in this way. Each time, wrap the yarn around the back of the needle and hook, and then pull it through the stitch that is on the crochet hook. Each time you do this, you will be adding one new stitch to your knitting needle.

Continue to create stitches this way until you have the correct number of cast-on stitches. 

Once you're done adding stitches to the knitting needle, chain a few extra crochet stitches at the end, break your yarn, and pull the tail of yarn through the last crochet stitch, so the chain doesn't unravel. 

Start knitting!

Simply join your project yarn and start knitting into the stitches that are on your knitting needles (being careful not to twist your stitches when you join to work in the round) treating them as a normal row of stitches. Let the waste yarn row just sit until you're ready to go back and use it. 

REMOVING THE PROVISIONAL CAST-ON

Taking out the crochet stitches and getting your first round of knitting back on a needle is the exact same process as with the Daisy Chain Method.

To watch my quick video reel, see Removing a Provisional Cast-On. 

When you've finished knitting your project, you'll need to get your provisionally cast-on stitches back onto a needle. Whether you are grafting two ends of an Infinity Cowl or Reversible Cowl together, or if you are knitting in the opposite direction, you'll need to take out the daisy chain and get that first row of stitches ready to work again.

To do this, start with the little tail of extra crochet chain that you did right at the end of the cast-on steps.

Pull the tail of yarn back out through the last crochet stitch in your daisy chain. If you keep pulling this tail, the daisy chain will unravel, so don't pull to much yet!

Starting at the beginning of round, using a second set of needles (in the same size or smaller than your project needles) pick up the right leg of each stitch in the first row of knitting (the row you pickup up and knit from the daisy chain).

It's helpful to pick up a couple of stitches, and then pull the waste yarn out of those stitches (rather than doing it one at a time, or pulling out the waste yarn before picking them up).

Once all the stitches from your first row of knitting are back on a knitting needle, you can move on to the next step in your pattern!

 

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Blog co-written by Jamie Lomax and Grey Lundy.