Long tail cast on is super confusing if you aren't used to it, it gets less weird the more you practice
I'm about five rows into my scarf project, and it's already nearly 3 inches long. I've barely touched my first ball of yarn, and I have a second one after that. I may or may not have enough yarn to make a cocoon for myself...
I attempted long tail cast on when I started, got deeply confused by it, and promptly abandoned it for the next four years in favour of a much simpler cast-on method. (Literally just creating a slip-knot and then doing yarn-overs until I have enough stitches, then knitting those and then starting the first row from there. Very simple, but not something I'd recommend for a project where the stitches twisting on you is a concern because...this method is very prone to twisting once it gets to enough stitches that using circulars is a necessity. Learning another cast-on was a blessing, honestly.)
I'm a big fan of the crochet cast-on? it's not as bad, I think, and it gives you a good starter for provisional cast-ons https://shop.mybluprint.com/knitting/article/crochet-cast-on-tutorial/
i'm a real fan of long tail, tbh. once it gets to the muscle memory stage it's automatic, your hands just do it. to avoid the 'tail too short what now' problem with very long cast-ons (i.e. blankets and sweaters) use the other end of the yarn ball. i mean, that won't work if your ball is an actual ball, but if you're using a center-pull ball, you can use the outside end for the tail. i use backwards loop for toe-up socks, though, because when you pick up stitches into it, it vanishes seamlessly.
for sure! I am horrible at phrasing some days, lemme see if I can rework these do you mean using a different end of the yarn than you'll be knitting up with? so for instance using both of those for a longtail? I don't actually know what backwards loop is so I'm going to look that one up, but the "pick up stitches into it" was the part that had me confused, I think
yep, exactly that. by 'backwards loop' i mean pretty much what @turtleDove said, where you pretty much make yarnovers until there's enough loops. i don't like it for most projects, because if you're in the habit of giving a little tug with each stitch, pretty soon you end up with a too-tight first row and a ridiculous long string between your needles. but for toe-up socks... how to explain. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/universal-toe-up-sock-formula pretty much explains what i do. you start by casting on half the circumference, use short rows to make the toe pocket, and then pick up the rest of the stitches to work in the round after that. so when you're at this stage half those stitches are made into your cast-on row. if you've used the backwards loop or yarnover method, and you pick those up without twisting, it just... magically disappears. you can't see where the join is unless you squint really close and spot where the rows are offset half a stitch. and you can't FEEL it at all, which is the big win for me, with my oversensitive autistic toes. :D
This is another drawback to that cast-on method, yeah: you need to work really loose with it while you're casting on and making that first row, or be prepared to use that extra string to make more stitches with. I am honestly surprised that I managed as long as I did working with it; it's okay for something where it doesn't matter if the cast-on edge looks loose, but it's hell on sorting out tensioning while you're doing that first row and it's directly responsible for why I had so much trouble getting the Spite Skirt started.
i impulse bought some yarn the other week and made an extremely gay hat: the colors are so bright y'all, i am SUPER impressed with the vibrant jewel tones! there were a bunch of other great color combos in the same line, but i wanted to make a hat that said "hipster at Pride." it ended up coming out more "guy playing hacky sack on the quad" but tbh that is equally accurate to me as a person, so it works.
i think it was a variation on this one! it's a pattern i've made a few times, i love the nubbly puff stitches.
this is making me a little nutty what is the difference between "place marker" and "slip marker"? I'm having a surprisingly hard time finding this on the internet when it seems like it should be very straightforward. ETA I'm pretty sure I've figured it out but the "SM" abbreviation wasn't in the three subsequent rows after the PM so I was a little ?????
place marker is when you put it in the first time, slip marker is what you do as you pass it on each line. no idea why it's missing on some lines, but my first guess would be a typo tbh
