Crochet Cast On.

[soapturtle]

I am interested in learning the crochet cast on, but everything I have seen doesn't make sense to me.

I am thinking that I want to just chain however many, draw up loops from that chain, like you would in Tunesian crochet, and then just knit the boogers off and swap the crochet needle for a knitting needle once it's been emptied.

This appeals to me because it seems like the only cast on I can ever do properly is the long tail one and I hate it because you can misjudge the length of the tail too easily.  And while yes, you can undo and go back, if I have just cast on 176 of 184 stitches, I don't really want to.

For those of you who can do both crochet and knitting, does this method I have outlined above make sense?  Have you tried something similiar to it already and if you have, did it work as you expected?

[irid3sc3nt]

Have you posted this same topic on the crochet question board, as well?  I've decided to abstain from crocheting since I'm knitting a whole bunch of gifts AND debbie stoller's new book should be coming out soon.

[soapturtle]

No, I didn't want to cross post and I wanted to talk to the "mostly knitters" amongst us.

I tried this today.  It worked fine.  I can see where it would be an issue with something that required a LARGE amount of stitches, which is mainly when I would want it, but I have figured out a work around and will try it next time I need to cast on a lot of stitches.

Eventually I might get around to taking pictures and posting it, but if you crochet at all you pretty much get the gist from my description.

[Calysa]

I knit and crochet and the method you described will work.  I did it a few days ago.  You use waste yarn to crochet a chain, then pick up loops of your good yarn through the back loops of your crocheted chain, using either your knitting needle or a Tunisian hook, then knit those loops in the normal way.  Another method is described here: http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=48  I haven't tried this yet but it looks easy enough to do.

[soapturtle]

I didn't even use waste yarn.  I want to say I didn't even back loop it either.  I just went in like I was going to crochet and pulled up loops.

Over all I am very pleased with the way it looks, but I want to experiment some more on it.  And I will after I finish up my shrug and a few other projects.

Thanks for the advice and the link.

[veronique]

I always use knitted cast-ons: on this website they are called "knitting on" (this one is super stretchy) and "cable cast on".   
For both, you are using your 2 knitting needles.  And best of all, you don't need to calculate how much yarn you need, as you just pick up your yarn and go! 
I've also used the crochet cast-on that Calysa linked to, and it workes very well, much easier than crocheting a chain and picking up stitches. 

[Calysa]

Ok, I see what you're trying to accomplish.  At first I thought you were going for a provisional cast-on, one that could be removed later, but I see that you want something permanent.  There are many different cast-ons to choose from.  Go here http://www.knittinghelp.com/knitting/basic_techniques/index.php for a bunch of tutorials.  The knitted cast-on that Veronique refers to is very good and easy to do.  It was the first one I learned.

Also - there's an easy way to determine how much yarn you'll need for a long-tail cast-on.  Take the number of stitches you're supposed to cast-on (say 100), divide by 2 (50), then leaving about a 6" tail, wrap the yarn around your needle that many (50) times.  The point where you end up is where you should begin your long tail cast-on.