Anyway, lifeline provisional cast-on - not original, but not widely known. To begin, as with any provisional cast-on, you need some waste yarn. This needs to be thin and smooth, as it is also going to be used as a lifeline, so you want something that will pull through the live stitches easily. I use either a piece of 4ply cotton yarn, or this stuff.

Having got your waste yarn or whatever, you now need a crochet chain of a bit more than half the cast on number that you are wanting. These socks have a 64 stitch cast on, so I need at least 32 chain - I worked 40 to have a bit of elbow room.

And now you start your cast-on. It is unbelievably simple. Exactly as usual, you work into the bumps along the back of the crochet chain, but with yarnovers between the knit stitches. It doesn't matter which end of the crochet chain you start with - I've started near the end with the last chain, the one pulled out into a loop. And you don't need to start right at the end of the chain either, that's what the elbow room is for.
Sometimes people have a problem deciding which thread to pick up. At each point along the chain, there are three threads. You can see the V shapes on the front of each chain, these are two of the threads - the bump is the other thread, the one along the back. When you pick it up, you can still see the V at the front of the chain, that's how you know you've got the right bit.
Knit into the first bump - and then yarnover. Knit into the next bump - and yarnover. All the way along.


Now, I start knitting round. I don't need to do anything particular with regard to a join, of course. For a picot hem I work seven rounds knit, then one round (yo, k2tog) all around, then another 7 rounds knit. And then it is time to actually form the hem.
The next step is to pull out the provisional cast on, so the live stitches can be picked up. And literally that is what you do - you unzip the crochet chain. You don't need to do it particularly slowly or particularly carefully, as the stitches are all going to end up on a lifeline. But don't pull the lifeline right out of the stitches!

So, unzip the crochet chain completely, and then you can start picking up the live stitches at your leisure. I use a set of needles in a smaller size because it makes it easier, and easy is good. You can start picking up from either end of course, as you wish. Make sure that you get them the right way round on the needle though. Once again, four needles, 16 stitches on each.


After all the stitches are picked up, you need to do a bit of rearranging with regard to the two sets of needles, so you can work the joining round. You need to wiggle things around so that you have the new smaller needle (the red one, here) sitting behind the main needle (pale green here) - with the right side of the work facing outwards, of course. And then you work around knitting two together, one stitch from each needle. Like this.


7 comments:
Thank you for that tutorial, I need to study it and learn properly. :)
I have had a go, my lifeline didn't work beyond two stitches at a time.. mucked up some where, worked past that and I have a lovely picot hem starting my sock.. Thank you Fiona and next sock I might just get it right ;)
Pixie, you possibly missed out a yarnover. It is easily done. It is the yarnovers that work the magic - without them the stitches aren't on a lifeline at all. Maybe try it on a little swatch, just working flat? Better luck next time, anyway!
Thank you for this. I have saved this page for future reference, it will be really useful as you have made it very clear.
Peeking back in to say.. I did it whooo.. what I did wrong was knit into the wrong loop on the crochet chain.. Dippy me! lol
Thanks again xxx
I'll print this out and put it in my knitting binder: very well explained, and great pics. Thanks!
Where and how do I obtain that 1/2 stitch? Have never used that feature.
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