Provisional Cast On

Provisional Cast On

The Chocolate Cascade Cowl pattern begins with a provisional cast on, which is also known as a crochet cast on. For the provisional cast on you will need:

• contrasting color waste yarn, preferably a light color to make it easy to see.
• knitting needle
• similarly-sized crochet hook (similar in size to the knitting needle)**

**If you don’t have a similarly-sized crochet hook, there is an alternative method shown below.

Since you will be removing the waste yarn when you are grafting the ends together, I suggest beginning and ending the cast on with several chain stitches (videos below, parts 1 and 3). This allows you to easily grab onto onto the waste yarn when it is time to unravel it. This is optional, of course. You can begin with a single slip stitch. The movements of the cast on are showed in the part 2 video below.

For the cowl, I’ve cast on 92 stitches with my contrast color waste yarn (tan), and then knit across all the stitches with my first color (white).

**Alternative Method for the Provisional Cast On

If you don’t have a crochet hook handy, there’s an alternative method for this cast on that uses only knitting needles. I begin the same way, with a few chain stitches. Place the last loop of the chain stitches on the right-hand needle.

Next, hold the needles crossed, with the left needle over the right needle.

Bring the yarn from the back around to the front (counter-clockwise) around the left-hand needle and to the back, between the two needles.

Continue wrapping the yarn all the way around the right-hand needle (clockwise). You will now have one loop (stitch) on the left-hand needle and two loops on the right-hand needle.

Carefully move the bottom stitch (right-hand needle) over the top stitch and off the needle – this motion is similar to a bind off. The stitch on the left needle is the first cast on stitch.

Removing the Provisional Cast On

Once you have finished the knitting, you will remove the provisional cast on stitches. Below is a video showing how to remove the cast on stitches.