How to knit
A 5 Inch Square
How to CAST ON Knitting for Total Beginners
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hey I'm Davina from sheep and Stitch and
today I'll show you the long tail cast
on using the thumb method this is a
great beginner cast on and we'll go
through it step by step
alright real quick let's talk beginner
materials so I'm using Lion brand's
hometown in the color Fort Lauderdale
coral this is a bulky weight acrylic
yarn and I always recommend thicker
yarns for beginners because they're
easier to hold on to and I'll throw a
link to this yarn down in the
description I'm also using 10 millimeter
bamboo needles I'm a big fan of bamboo
or wooden needles because both these
needles have nice surface drag that
grips the yarn and makes it less
slippery to work with okay now let's get
on to casting on alright so first we
need to determine how much yarn we need
and this is pretty easy so if you know
you want to knit a scarf that's like 5
inches wide then you'll just multiply
that by 3 ok so that would be 15 inches
so let's just say I'm gonna knit a scarf
that's 5 inches wide I'm gonna you know
eyeball about 15 inches of yarn and
that's where I'm going to start my cast
on so like let's say that's like here
okay it's just for the sake of making
things easier once I figured out my
point where I want my cast on to be then
I'm gonna make a slipknot okay so what
is a slipknot super easy I'm going to
make a loop with my yarn just like this
alright so how did I do that I just took
like held my yarn like this in my two
hands and kind of brought my hands
together okay and made a loop just like
that right about a big but a boom right
about a big but a boom that's it okay a
little loop then I'm going to take my
strand of yarn here and bring it behind
the loop okay so that it kind of divides
my loop in half okay so I'm gonna just
hold that in place there then I'm gonna
take my finger and just pick out that
strand of yarn from my loop and pull it
out and there you go now I've got a
slipknot pretty cool right so let's do
that again alright no slip knot and now
I'm going to make a loop okay just like
this and I'm gonna hold that loop
take my strand of yarn bring it behind
the loop so that it is kind of in the
middle of the loop that I'm gonna just
take out that strand of yarn from my
loop yeah there we go
so now there's my slipknot all right so
I'm gonna take my needle I'm gonna put
it into my Slipknot just like that right
now my Slipknot is sitting on my needle
and I'm going to grab these two strands
of yarn and just pull them so that the
slip knot tightens around my needle it's
nice and snug oh yeah so now I've got my
Slipknot
all right so what I'm gonna do now is
I'm gonna take my finger and just put it
down on the Slipknot you can use two
fingers if you want I just want to make
sure that this Slipknot isn't like
rolling around when we're casting on
okay so just use your right hand and
just you know put it down on that stitch
so that it's nice and secure all right
let's get started first I'm gonna take
my left hand hello and I'm gonna go
underneath this strand of yarn on the
front and I'm gonna grab it with my four
fingers kind of like I'm making like a
thumbs up sign okay then I'm gonna take
my thumb and I'm gonna go behind that
strand of yarn and then up so it's kind
of looped around my thumb
okay so I'll show you that again left
hand underneath the strand of yarn grab
it thumb goes behind that strand of yarn
and we're going to twist it onto the
thumb cool now we're gonna take our
needle and we're gonna touch the front
of our thumb and go into the loop that
our thumb has made alright just like
that so let's do that again here's my
needle I'm going to touch the front of
my thumb and go into the loop on my
thumb cool all right so now this strand
of yarn that's attached to our ball of
yarn it wants to get some action to
right it's been kind of left out of this
game so we're gonna take that strand of
yarn wrap it around our needle okay so
from the back to the front okay and then
I'm going to take this loop on my thumb
bring it over the needle and then drop
everything let it all go
take the Strand of yarn in the front
pull it down all right and that is our
first cast on stitch using the longtail
cast on
pretty cool right so this is I know this
probably seems really crazy and
confusing and don't worry we're gonna go
through this again a couple times all
right so let's continue all right let's
take our left hand go underneath the
strand of yarn grab it take our thumb go
behind that yarn so we're gonna take our
thumb go behind the yarn pick it up and
kind of twist it so it's around our
thumb then I'm gonna take my needle and
touch the front of my thumb and then go
into the loop okay into the loop that my
thumb has made all right and now I'm
going to take this strand of yarn
attached to my ball of yarn and I'm
gonna go around the needle from the back
to the front okay then you're gonna take
this loop on our thumb and bring it over
our needle let it go pull down and that
is our third cast on stitch so if your
stitches are kind of loose you can just
take both strands of yarn and just pull
them to tighten up that stitch okay so
let's do that again
left hand under the yarn grab it our
thumb goes behind the Strand of yarn and
our needle touches the front of our
thumb goes into the loop and then our
yarn attached to our ball goes behind
the needle to the front the loop on our
thumb we're gonna bring that over the
needle and pull down everything is nice
and tight now pretty cool right so let's
keep on going left hand grab thumb
behind to the front needle touches the
thumb goes through the Lu
yarn attached to the ball goes from
behind the needle to the front loop on
the thumb goes over the needle and pull
down so continue doing this and cast on
the number of stitches that you need for
your pattern and once you have the
number of stitches that you need then
you can start knitting so that's all
there is to the long tail cast on using
the thumb method you know if this is
confusing you and you're like oh my gosh
I can't do this just keep practicing it
it's gonna take you a couple times to
really get it that's perfectly normal
okay so just keep at it and before long
you're gonna have a really nice cast on
that you can start knitting into as
you're casting on you'll notice that the
yarn tail in the front is getting
shorter and shorter remember when we
started it was like really long and
luscious and now it's this tiny little
tail so that's what happens when you
cast on with the long tail cast on this
little strand of yarn gets shorter and
shorter that's why at the very beginning
I mentioned that you should measure out
how much yarn you'll need for your cast
on so that's just a little reminder of
why you need to measure out your yarn
before you start casting on hey thanks
for watching this video is part of the
how to knit series if you want to check
out the whole series then head to
sheepandstitch.com slash how - - - knit
it's an awesome page that I put together
to help out beginners it'll bring you
from tall noob to bonafide knitter it's
great and it's free ok
lastly subscribe for more cool knitting
videos and if you like this video then
please give it a big thumbs up i'm
davina from sheepandstitch.com thanks
for watching and I'll see you next time
bye
[Music]
