Mom and I were sitting on my back porch on a sunny southern New Mexico day just hanging out and knitting.
She was beginning sock number two of a the pair she was currently working on. I don’t remember what I was working on but out of the corner of my eye, I saw mom do the most genius thing!
She uses long-tail cast on for the tops of her socks. I don’t particularly like the long-tail cast on because I usually end up with way too much of a tail or short and only need a handful or so more stitches. When you work shawls with cast ons over 200 stitches, not worth the gamble.
She wrapped her yarn around the needle ten times.
Then she “marked” how much for the tail and those ten stitches.
Then she doubled the length of yarn to make enough to cast on for 20.
Then again for 40 stitches.
And on and on until she had what she needed to cast on her sock. I did 40 for this example.
I have a longer tail than I would want but remember I don’t normally work long-tail cast on and I think I did them too tight. Also after looking at the photos, I think the yarn I wound around the needle to begin with was too far apart. This will take some practice.
I hope this is a good tip for those of you who work the long-tail cast on. If you have other long-tail cast on tips to share, please do so in the comments.
Happy Making!
Azariahs Fibre Arts 