A Happy Mistake

Leslie Ann Bestor's book Cast On, Bind Off holds a well-deserved spot on my bookshelf.  Not only is it small enough to tote around in a project bag, but every single one of the 54 techniques is well-photographed and covered by step-by-step written instructions.  To top it off, the covered spiral binding means it stays open all on its own (hurray!).

In my excitement to try out the book's new-to-me techniques I don't always thoroughly read the instructions before putting yarn to needles.  More often than not this results in me frogging a first failed attempt then pausing to read (all of) the directions before trying again.

However, several months ago while rushing through the instructions for Tillybuddy's Very Stretchy Cast On I messed up and did not notice my mistake for several weeks.  The original project was finished, other projects cast on using my incorrect interpretation, until one day a conversation on the Ravelry forums revealed that I learned the cast on wrong.

The happy part?  My mistaken cast on actually works quite nicely and I love the results!  Very stretchy and stable, doesn't roll or curl, springs back to shape, requires only one strand of working yarn, doesn't need a pre-measured tail, works for odd or even numbers of stitches, and can even be used to cast on in the middle of a project.

My accidental cast on differs from Tillybuddy's cast on because once your first two stitches are created, you are casting on new stitches individually rather than in pairs.  A fun little riff on a great original.

For anyone interested in trying out my happy mistake cast on, read on:

1. You will need two needles and a ball of yarn.  Hold your needles and  working yarn just like you regularly do for knitting.  Leaving a few inches for weaving in when done, grasp the yarn tail along the left needle, tail trailing off to the left.  Wrap the working yarn over the left needle from back to front (use your left fingertips to make sure the tail stays in back).  Nothing is on the right needle at this point.
2. Inserting the right needle to the left of both legs (this is the most finicky part of the entire cast on) of the yarn on the left needle as if to knit, knit one but don't drop anything off either needle.
3. Bring the working yarn forward between the needles.
   
4. With the working yarn still forwards, slip the newly-knit stitch from your right needle over to the left needle without twisting the stitch.  Nothing is on your right needle at this point and you have a total of 2 stitches cast on to the left needle.
5. Let your working yarn go between the needles to the back.  (So far we have not deviated from Tillybuddy's method.  We will in the next step!)
   
6. Insert the right needle between the last two stitches on the left needle, knit one but don't drop anything from either needle.  Bring your working yarn forward between the needles, slip the newly-knit stitch to the left needle without twisting.  Let working yarn go between the needles to the back.  This is essentially the same as steps 2 through 5 above.
   
7. Repeat step 6 until you have cast on all the stitches you need.  Enjoy!