Stretchy Cast On Method: German Twisted Cast On

Hi, I'm Jen Lucas for The Knitting Circle. In this video, I'm going to show you how to work The German twisted cast on. This particular cast on is perfect when you need a little extra stretch at the start of your piece. In particular, I like to use it for the start of a cuff down sock because you really need the top of that sock to be stretchy in order to fit it over your foot. I also like to use the German twisted cast on when I'm starting a hat, when you need a little extra stretch at the brim.

Let's go ahead and take a look at the German twisted cast on. The German twisted cast on is the perfect cast on when you need the edge of your knitting to be super stretchy. Here I have a little swatch where I just worked it on a background of stockinette and here is my German twisted cast on down here you can see that I have these sort of extra twists or bumps and that is created in our cast on and by adding that little bit of extra yarn into the cast on, it really provides a lot of stretch. Where this is particularly important is when you need your knitted fabric to stretch in order to fit. The perfect example would be the top of a cuff down sock.

You want that cast on to be super stretchy because you're going to need to fit that sock over your foot. So since socks typically start with ribbing. I have a little swatch here that shows some ribbing where I used the German twisted cast on down here. And as you can see, it's a very stretchy cast on so I like using this for cuff down socks. I also like using it for when I'm starting a hat in particular baby hats.

I like using this cast on because it is so stretchy. So let's go ahead and do the German twisted cast on. So you'll notice that this cast on is very similar to the long tail cast on, and to start we're going to need a long tail. You may recall in our long tail cast on video that we wrapped the yarn around our needle at the start to sort of approximate how long our tail needs to be. For the long tail cast on we wrapped the yarn around 10 times and that was going to approximate 10 stitches.

Because the German twisted cast on uses more yarn, I'm going to go ahead and wrap the yarn around 15 times and that will be my estimation for 10 stitches. So let me show you what I mean. So I'm going to start by just leaving a tail, six to eight inches so I can have it to weave in later. And I'm going to put the yarn on my needle and I'm going to loosely wrap it around 15 times. There we go.

I'm going to pull this off And that will be my 10 stitches to cast on. So with the sock you might need something around 60 stitches. So you could fold the yarn over to approximate, you know and count until you have the amount you need. And remember, it's always better to have a tail that's too long than a tail that's not long enough. So if you're unsure, just make sure you leave even a little bit extra yarn, but here, we're just going to go ahead and cast on with this length here.

So I'm going to start with a slipknot here cause we want to leave that long tail. So to make my slipknot, I'm going to fold the yarn over. Then I'm going to fold my loop down over my tail and take my needle and insert it to pick up that loop and put it on my needle. That's going to be my first stitch. And so now we're gonna configure the yarn like you would with a long tail cast on.

So we have our long tail is going to go on our thumb and our working yarn is going to go on our index finger. And if you need a review of the long tail cast on you can be sure to check out our video. We have one on how to do it. So if you're doing the long tail cast on normally you're going under this loop here to start but to do the German twisted cast on we're actually going to take our needle go under both loops on our thumb And then in the hole. Again, we're going to go under both around and through.

We're going to come over to the thumb and pick up like we normally do. And now you can see here there's sort of a twist or an X on our thumb. We have to bend our thumb to open that hole up and bring the yarn through. So that's the twist. So again, hold it like the long tail cast on, under both, through the hole, around to the index finger, uncross your loop on your thumb, and bring the needle down and through.

And that creates our third stitch. Under both, through the loop, around to the index finger, untwist the loop on your thumb, and pull it through. I'm going to do a few more of those for you. So if you're comfortable doing the long tail cast on this really is just a little bit different. And once you get the hang of it, it's very quick and easy to work.

Again, under both, through the loop, around to the index finger, untwist the loop on your thumb, and bring the needle through. And there we go. And you can even see even on the needle, it's very stretchy but again, you can see it, especially on this swatch here. It's a very stretchy cast on and one I think you'll really enjoy. And there you go.

As you can see, it's pretty similar to the long tail cast on, but we're actually just adding a little extra twist to the cast on. And by doing that twist, we're putting a little more yarn into the cast on, and that adds a little more stretch which again is perfect for socks and hats, things like that where you really could use that extra stretch. I'm Jen Lucas for The Knitting Circle. I hope that you enjoyed this video and I'll see you back here for more videos soon.