Turkish Cast On
Corrina FergusonThe Turkish Cast On is the perfect cast on when starting a toe-up sock. It creates a double-sided cast on, that creates a seamless start and flows into Stockinette stitch. In this video, Corrina Ferguson explains how to work this cast on method for a toe-up sock when using magic loop.
This cast on can be used for any small circumference knitting methods (magic loop, 2 circulars, double-pointed needles), but Corrina finds this cast on is easiest when using the magic loop method. She begins the cast on by working a slip knot onto one of the needles. She holds both needles together in her right hand, with the slip knot on the top needle. The yarn will be wrapped around both needles to create stitches. Corrina notes that the number of times the yarn is wrapped around the needle depends on the total number of stitches when the cast on is complete. You’ll want to wrap the yarn around the needle half the number of times as the total stitches needed. Corrina wants 12 stitches on her needles when the cast on is complete, so she wraps the yarn around the needle 6 times.
Corrina then turns the work over to hold in her left hand. She pulls the bottom needle out of the stitches, so they are resting on cord of the circular needle. She knits across the six stitches on the top needle, noting that they are loose. Once those stitches are worked, she turns the work and sets up to work the other half of the stitches. The slip knot is removed, and she knits the other stitches. As this cast on can be a little loose, the stitches can be tugged on slightly to tighten them up have them match the gauge of the rest of the sock.
Hi there. I'm Corrina Ferguson for The Knitting Circle. In knitting, there are so many cast ons that you can choose from. But it's always great to learn a new one. In this video, We're gonna learn how to work the Turkish cast on.
So let's get started. So when you're working your socks from the toe up, you need a specialized cast on for the toe area. And the one that I'm gonna show you in this video is called a Turkish cast on. And it's one of my favorite cast on for toe-up socks, because it's so neat and tidy. And basically, what that does is it gives you a seamless point.
There's no bumps or anything from a long tail cast on or anything else. And it's the easiest one that I found to do. So what we're gonna do is we're going to get these are long circs that I'm using for, it's almost impossible to see that cord, to use for knitting magic loop style. You can do this magic loop style, or you can do this with two circs if you prefer that way. I wouldn't recommend doing it with double points, just because it's kind of tight and fiddly, and then it makes you sad.
So we need to start with a slip knot. And we're going to put that slip knot on our top of these needles. And these needles are pointing to my left hand. I'm gonna put this on the top one. And I'm gonna snug it up.
Snug, snug, snug. And then I'm gonna hold it in place and hold these two needles together. And then, if I want six needles on each side, I'm gonna wrap it six times. So that would give me a total of 12 stitches. So whatever number of stitches you need total for your toe, you're gonna wrap it half as many times.
So I'm just gonna do it six times. One, two, three, four, five and six. And I'm gonna hold these in place. And I'm gonna turn my work over, continuing to hold these in place. And I'm going to take my bottom needle now, which was originally my first.
And I'm gonna pull it through the same way you do for magic loop. And if you don't know how to do magic loop, we have another video that actually shows you how to do that. And so then I'm gonna insert my needle as if to knit this first stitch. And I'm gonna bring my yarn through and knit that first stitch. And I'm gonna do that all the way across this first needle.
And it's gonna be really loose, because it's long, because it's actually two stitches cast on and not one. So we're gonna knit all the way across these six stitches. And you'll probably have a lot more, because you'll be working with, you know, knit sock weight yarn, and not the kind of yarn that I'm working with here. And then, when you go to turn it around to work again, 'cause you turned around to work, and you pulled your needle through, we're gonna have that slip knot that we did in the beginning. And we really just did that to secure things.
So I'm gonna bring my needle around. And I'm gonna take that slip knot. Go. And I'm gonna take it. And I'm just gonna slide it off the needle.
And I'm gonna pull the slip knot out. And then, I've got my needles like this. And I'm ready to work the second row. So we just go in, and we work the second row. And then what we have is we have a total of six stitches on each side or whatever number you happen to have.
And we've got the beginning for a perfect toe-up sock. Oops, I'm splitting my yarn in there. Oopsie. We've got the beginning for a perfect toe-up sock. And you can see, I'm gonna pull this guy out, because it's easiest to see.
What I did here is I did the cast on in the blue, and then I immediately switched to the white before I started knitting. So you can see that blue row just turns out to be just like a row of stock in stitches. Those perfect little views. And then the end to that you have for the slip knot that you slipped off, you can use it if you need to snug these up at all. And you have a perfect beginning for a toe-up sock.
Thank you so much for joining me to learn how to work the Turkish cast on. Check out our website for more great videos.
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