Tips & Tricks

A lot of people ask how much yarn to use for a cast-on. There seems to be a few different ways to avoid that ungodly long tail, or not having enough to get all the stitches you need on those needles.

I did some looking and this is what I came up with. I hope this helps you if you have troubles with this yourself.

1: If you are doing a long-tail cast on.
* Take your yarn wrap it around the needle ten times (= ten sts)
* At end of last wrap pinch yarn closest to skien with you finger and unravel
* take the length you just wrapped around needle and make equal lengths to your required amount of stitches to cast on.

2: About 3 times the number of inches the piece is going to be. So for some 10" wide, about 30" plus 6" tail = 36".

3: (this one is unique!) I measure the yarn from fingertip to elbow and figure that is approximately 25 stitches. Do that until I have enough then add a little more lenth for the tail. Works for me.Been doing that for over sixty years.

I hope that one of these help you if you struggle with this same issue. I use #1

If you have any other tips or tricks that you think work best for casting on, please let me know!