I’ve made my first row of cast on stitches. I’m confused as to what side of the needle the extra yarn (the one NOT connected to the yarn ball) should be on.
Right now, I am holding the needle in my left hand and the extra piece of yarn ends on the pointed tip (right part of needle)
I am learning to knit the continental way.
Thanks!
6 Comments
It doesn’t matter, as your tail (the strand not connected to the ball) will be woven in later.
But if you want to avoid weaving-in your tail later, you can do what I do: Hold the tail together with your working yarn for the first couple of stitches. Just pretend that they are one yarn — I twist them together to make it easier.
After that, you can either drop the tail and just keep knitting with your working yarn (you’ll come back with a pair of scissors once you’re all done and trim off the excess) OR you can just keep holding them together till you run out of tail and then just keep going with the working yarn. (Depends on how long your tail is. I try to keep mine as short as possible to save yardage, so I just keep knitting with my tail till I use it up. If I had a long tail, though, I’d probably stop after around five stitches.)
This is a very secure way of working in your tail, and fairly invisible, too. The only downside is that section of your fabric will be a little thicker than the other parts (since you’re effectively knitting with two strands of yarn instead of one).
i leave the tail where it is and use it to sew up the garment.if it is not going to be joined to an other piece of knitting then weave it in as described.
If you are using the “long-tail” cast on method, you would hold the “free” end of the yarn–the tail–in your left hand. It would then end up on the left and they ball end would end up on the right. You would be able to apply tension to the ball yarn and tighten down the last stitch.
However, if you did it the other way, you can still knit with the ball yarn and tighten down that last stitch with the tail yarn. After the first row, you’ll be knitting with the correct strand. Would I rip it out and start over? Maybe, if there were fewer than, say, 25 stitches. Maybe not. However, if you do choose to rip it out, remember that (a) you’re not the first person to do that and (b) all the practice you get is a benefit to you. Think of it as a learning experience.
Here are some web sites that might help you with the cast-on part:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/cast-on
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LgOs91W9n4
Apparently you don’t want to know what to do with the tail. Your question is about the tail and when you cast on the continental way {I use this method too} the tail will be on the right hand side of the needle you cast the stitches on . Contact me if there is something else you don’t understand.
It depends on what cast-on method you use. With one method I use, the tail is next to the first stitch I cast on (which would be at the non-pointed end of the needle); with the other, both the yarn ball and the tail end are with the last cast-on stitch, at the pointed end of the needle.
Where the tail is doesn’t really matter….
It’s not really clear what method of casting on you are using. There are many, you know. If you are using the long-tail method (it is important to learn the correct names for what you are doing), then you will get the “tail” at the beginning where you started casting on the first stitch… where the working yarn is as well.
There is nothing you need to do with that tail. Just leave it. If it is very long, I would start over… I like to have my cast-on work out perfectly and I have NO tail left at all! Sometimes it happens; if it is too long, I take it out and start over in a new place. If you are going to be sewing up some pieces, you need this tail to use in the sewing, so don’t worry about it.
I actually prefer the cable cast-on since I don’t waste an inch, and I have NO tail left over. It’s also a bit stretchier, for me, so I use it most often. But you will use whatever you need for the project.
Whether you knit continental or English doesn’t matter. It’s your cast-on method that determines where the tail ends up.
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