Thumb Cast On

I've been teaching the girls to knit. They have trouble remembering how to cast on because they only do it once per garment. I've been very frustrated trying to find a drawing of the thumb-cast on that Mom and I learned back in the 1960s. Maybe someday I'll find the book we learned from and be able to post the drawings for posterity. FOR JOY! One of the lists I read gave a link to a British site that illustrates the thumb cast-on. If my directions below don't work, go here http://www.coatscra fts.co.uk/ Crafts/Knitting/ Howtos/How+ to+Cast+On. htm

In the meantime, here is how I cast on.

Thumb Cast On
1. Estimate how long your tail needs to be. If my cast on is for 30 stitches, I wrap the yarn around one needle 30 times and make slip knot after last wrap. This gives more than enough yarn for the tail.
2. Hold the tail-end yarn with the last three fingers of your left hand.
3. Wrap clock-wise around your left thumb until you can see an X where the two pieces of yarn cross. (It won't work if you wind counter-clockwise).
4. Insert your needle under the left side of yarn.
5. Take the ball-side of the yarn and yarn over the needle. (Come from underneath and wrap across the top.)
6. Slip the loop on your left thumb over the needle, and snug down stitch by pulling on the tail-end.
Repeat until all stitches are cast on.

Provisional Cast-On
I have done a provisional cast on that is rather like this, wrapping around the thumb and slipping it over the needle without anchoring it with the ball-side yarn. It isn't as firm a cast on, but it will give you a starting point for adding stitches within a garment.

Knitting Ditties and Tying a Bowline

Have trouble remembering how to form knit and purl stitches? These ditties remind me of the story about the rabbit running around his tree* that we taught Brownies when they were learning knot tying. (I was so-o-o-o bad about tying the bowline that my rabbit couldn't even find the tree!)

By the way, these ditties work. I taught them to Lala on a Monday night. She was the first of our Stitch n Bitchers to learn the purl stitch! The next day she took her yarn to school and was teaching the kids in her second grade class knit and purl stitches during show-n-tell. That's pretty good for the girl that was forgetting to finish her knit stitches before she learn the poems.

To help you remember the knit stitch: 

In through the front door,
Run around the back,
Out through the window,
And off pops Jack!


This translates as: (Knitting American style)

In through the front door -- insert your right needle from front to back of the first loop on the left needle.  

Run around the back -- Loop your yarn from the bottom around the back of the fabric bringing it onto the needle. You will be looping the yarn from underneath, between the back of the fabric and the right needle, and laying the yarn over the needle.

Out through the window -- draw the yarn that is laying across your right needle point through the loop that is on the left needle.

And off pops Jack -- Tug gently to form a new loop on the right needle, and then slip the other loop off the left needle. The left loop will form the "knot" that secures the loop on the right needle. (If this doesn't work right, the stitch will not form and you will drop the stitch.)

and the purl stitch:

Under the fence
Catch the sheep
Back we come
Off we leap.

Under the fence -- Insert right needle from back to front into first loop on left needle.

Catch the sheep -- with yarn pulled to the front of the fabric, slide it underneath the right needle and over so that it is laying in front of the loop on the left needle.

Back we come -- using the point of the right needle, guide the yarn through the loop on the left needle to create a new loop on the right needle.

Off we leap -- Slip left loop off of left needle, and allow it to tighten at the bottom of the loop on the right needle. Again, if this step doesn't finish and create the "knot" your stitch will drop and disappear.

NOTE (6/30/09): Oral traditions are always evolving. My grandkids have already modified these to be:

In the door,
Run around the back,
Out the window,
Off jumps Jack.

and

Under the fence,

Catch a sheep,

Out the window,

Off we leap.

*For the curious, I searched the Net and found this tutorial on tying a bowline from Boy Scout Troop 184 in Tranquility, New Jersey. (Unfortunately, the site had been removed, so the link no longer works. :( iij 5/09)

The Bowline

It is time to put your first accomplishment to use. We will dip into Nature Studies to come up with the mnemonic or memory aid for tying the Bowline. Form an Overhand Loop about two feet from the running end of your rope. The part of the rope in your left hand is a tree. The standing end is the trunk of the tree. The Overhand Loop is a rabbit hole at the base of the tree. The running end is the rabbit.

The story goes: the rabbit comes out of the hole (through the Overhand Loop towards you), runs to the back (to the right) around the tree and goes back into the hole from which he came. Now grab hold of the running end and the part of the loop which is closest to the running end in one hand and the standing end (the tree trunk) in the other hand and tighten the knot.

The question of which way does the rabbit go is frequently asked. Consider the loop which forms the letter “P” to be the direction pointer and go straight back on that side. The result will be that the running end will be inside the noose. If the running end winds up on the outside of the noose, the knot is not a true Bowline (called a Left-Handed Bowline, no offense, Lefties) and it will be a much weaker knot.

I have lost the illustrations that originally came with these directions, but I did find this website that gives step-by-step photos. http://www.wikihow.com/Tie-a-Bowline-Knot