Disappearing loop as a flat knitting cast-on for shawls
I wrote recently about a start for a top-down triangular shawl I’d come up with, but there’s another that I’ve used in several shawl designs (most of them not yet published): modified disappearing loop. You can see it in use in Sycamore Creek (payhip link).
Disappearing loop is generally used as the center of a shawl or something else to be worked in the round from the center outward. However, there’s no reason it can’t be used in cases where you need to cast on a small number of stitches for a shawl to be worked flat.
Here’s how.
I call this “modified” disappearing loop, not because it’s worked flat, but because I came up with a step that I think makes it a little less awkward to work than the way I learned it.
Step 1: make a slip knot and place it on your left needle (this will be dropped later; do not knit into it). Then make a backward loop on your needle so that the yarn comes forward over the yarn at the bottom of the needle. Don’t pull on it, but leave it loose. You will be knitting multiple stitches into this one stitch.
Step 2: knit one stitch into this stitch, but don’t pull it off the needle yet.
Step 3: bring the yarn forward between the needle and the top of the loop to make a yarnover.
Step 4: knit another stitch into the loop.
Repeat steps 3&4 until you have the number of stitches you need, ending with step 4. This will always make an odd number of stitches. (If you need an even number, increase a stitch somewhere in the next row.)
Once you have enough stitches, slide the loop and slip knot off the left needle and undo the slip knot. Pull the loop tight.
Turn your work to start knitting flat; you can start with a right-side row if you wish.
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I have to read this again to appreciate the actual technique, but those illustrations, wow! Did you draw them in Inkscape or Illustrator?
Almost! I traced photos in an iPad graphics app that’s like a simple version of photoshop, using a stylus. The particular app isn’t available in the App Store anymore, but there’s a bunch of tablet apps that could do the same thing.
Thank you!
Oh, I love this! 😀
Yay, thanks!
I love this! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Aaahhhh – I hadn’t thought of using a disappearing/magic loop to start a top down, center-out shawl! It looks better than The garter tab cast-on, which kind of makes a hump in the center of the shawl. Thank you for this!!!
I’m glad you like it! I’ve never cared for garter tabs and it’s interesting to see how many other people agree.
Hello Naomi, just a quick question. If you end with Step 3 (a yarnover), won’t that leave you with an unsecured yarnover when you turn your work? And also, if you are working in pairs of “K1, yo”, wouldn’t that always give an even number of stitches cast on? Sorry if this is a silly question – I am trying this cast-on method for the first time.
That is a typo! Thank you for telling me. I guess nobody else has mentioned it to me because I also say to end with an odd number of stitches.
So yes, end with step 4.