A step by step tutorial on provisional cast on knitting with a crochet hook
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The provisional cast on with a crochet hook is my personal favorite method because it makes counting stitches very easy.
You will need some slippery scrap yarn like cotton, and a crochet hook. Don’t use a fuzzy yarn or anything that has a lot of friction. It will make it very hard to unravel your stitches later on. And I would take a contrasting color so it’s easier to make out the difference between your knitting and the provisional cast on.
Start with a simple slip knot and then you crochet a couple of chain stitches. And then, you put your knitting needle in between the working yarn and the live chain stitch and add one more chain stitch trapping your knitting needle in between.
Then, you have to bring the yarn around the needle, and then you add another one. Bring the yarn around again, and chain stitch again. And so on.
Try to work those stitches towards the middle of the needle and not on the taper because it may get a bit harder to slide them across your needle if you crochet them too tight.
Once you cast on enough provisional stitches, add a couple of more chain stitches, like 4 or 5 and then cut the yarn and pull it through. I always mark the end with a little knot. Because this will be the end where you’ll start unraveling.
And then, you can simply knit across these stitches in any pattern you like. Make sure you don’t split the yarn as you go. Because then you can’t unravel it anymore.
Now, how do you pick up the provisional cast on? There are two methods:
You can either unravel the chain stitch and pick up as you go, or you can insert your needles into the stitches beforehand and then unravel.
I prefer inserting the knitting needle into the left leg of all stitches of the first row. And once you did that, you can unravel the chain stitches.
So, what happens if unraveling like this doesn’t work? You would have to pick up your knitting needle, cut the tail and then undo the stitches one at a time. Or, if you are daring enough, you can also cut the provisional cast-on every two or three stitches and tear it out.
One last thing: You might be wondering how to knit a provisional cast-on in round. Here’s the good news - it’s the exact same technique. The only difference is that you distribute the stitches to 4 needles instead of one. It might be easier for you to start on one needle and then slip the stitches to your double-pointed needles once you cast on all your stitches.
For joining in the round. I do recommend you do slip a couple of stitches like 3 or 4 from the last needle to the first. From my experience, it makes knitting this first round much easier. But of course, you could also knit one round flat, and only then switch to your double-pointed needles.
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