Reexplaining Beverly Royce’s cast on 1
This cast on comes from Beverly Royce’s Notes on Double Knitting., a book as brilliant as Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears. Royce‘s instructions took me a long time to understand, so I wrote out an alternative explanation. I still don’t have a digital camera, so if someone else wants to add pictures to make this an official tutorial, feel free.
Royce suggests that knitters work the cast on and first two rows in a slightly smaller needle. My own limited experience tells me that one to two sizes smaller should be enough,
1. Put a slip knot on the right needle, leaving a long tail. Once you get the hang of this, you can just twist the yarn around the needle.
2. position your hands as for a long-tail cast on.
A. The fingers of your left hand are holding an invisible glass of water. The yarn is laid over your thumb and index finger. The dangly ends are tucked into your middle, ring, and little fingers, which are curled closed. The yarn describes an up-side-down triangle that goes from the middle finger up to the thumb, over to the index finger, and down to the middle finger.
B. The needle is in your right hand. It’s resting on the horizontal top of the triangle. The tip points toward your left hand. There is one stitch on the needle.
For the remaining instructions, the thumb yarn is the strand that goes from the thumb to the needle, and the index yarn is the strand that goes from the index finger to the needle. Those are the only strands you’re concerned with. the ones that go from thumb or index to the middle finger do not figure at all here.
3. Move the needle slightly away from you, then down a smidge, then toward you again. The needle is now under the index yarn. This is the starting point.
4. With the tip of the needle, describe a circle that goes around the thumb yarn: over the strand and toward you, in front of the strand and down, and under the strand and away from you. Stop when you reach the starting point.
5. move the needle away from you, then up past the index yarn, then toward you–back to where it was in step 2, the top of the horizontal part of the triangle. Once you get the hang of it, you’re really just wiggling the index yarn with that finger.
You’ve now cast on the second stitch. the next stitch will be the same process in mirror image.
6. Move the needle toward you slightly, then down a smidge, then away from you again. The needle is now under the thumb yarn. This is the starting point.
7. With the tip of the needle, describe a circle that goes around the index yarn: over the strand and away from you, behind the strand and down, and under the strand and toward you. Stop when you reach the starting point.
8. move the needle toward you, then up past the thumb yarn, then away from you–back to where it was in step 2, the top of the horizontal part of the triangle. Once you get the hang of it, you’re really just wiggling the thumb yarn with that finger.
You’ve now cast on the third stitch.
9. Repeat Steps 3 through 8 until you have the desired number of stitches. Remember to alternate between a stitch that starts by moving under the index yarn (Step 3) with a stitch that starts by moving under the thumb yarn (Step 6). End with Step 5 for an even number of stitches.
10. After the last stitch has been cast on, twist the tail and the working yarn once, and work Rows 1 and 2 as follows: * k1, sl1 wyif *. Slip all stitches as if to purl, and don’t worry about the ridge at the cast-on edge. That disappears after a few rows.
Switch to a needle that is one or two sizes larger, and continue working all rows following the basic * k1, sl1 wyif * pattern. Royce’s book contains four basic patterns. The * k1, sl1 wyif * is the one I use most often and the one I combine with the invisible cast on. I haven’t worked with the others enough to remember whether I need to end the cast on with Step 5 or 8.
The * k1, sl1 wyif * stitch makes a very loose fabric, so I need to use a smaller needle. For DK weight yarn, which normally calls for a 4 mm needle, I use a needle that is 3.25 mm to get the right fabric. That means I cast on with a needle that is 2.75 or 3 mm in diameter.
