I like to sew but will do almost anything to avoid seaming.

PRE-GAME WARM-UP

I love the construction of bandana cowls. Working the piece flat first and then joining edges to form the cowl's opening is a fun spin on this popular accessory. It's different from cowls worked purely in the round, and the alternate construction keeps things interesting.

When the opportunity to design for inTANDEM came up, I knew I wanted to design a bandana cowl. I'd always wanted to design one, but I also wanted to design the construction so I could avoid doing a certain something:

SEAMING.

I run the other way.

I like to sew, though, so I can't explain my aversion to seaming, especially a seam that would only be about 6" long.

How could I design this cowl without seaming? I had an idea!

AT THE PLATE

A years-old technique

I LOVE knitted-on borders. I use this technique in two of my shawl designs, Posey and Flowing Leaves Shawl. Knitted-on borders can be used anywhere you'd like a decorative edge - the bottom border of a shawl, the border around a blanket, the hem of a sweater.

How a knitted-on border works

Stitches are left live on the work's main body. Then stitches are cast on for the border as an extension of and perpendicular to the body. The border is worked perpendicularly and joined to the body with a joining decrease stitch. This process also binds off the live body stitches.

How does this technique replace seaming?

The basic shape of this bandana cowl is a triangle with two of the three points "cut off". With the ends "cut", there are two short edges, and these edges are joined to form the opening of the cowl. This graphic shows the two edges to be joined in red.
When these edges are put together for seaming, the stitches from the cast-on edge lay perpendicular to the stitches along the side edge. This is no different than how a knitted-on border works.

If this technique works for a shawl border, it can work for a cowl!

The basic premise: this technique joins two edges where the stitches are perpendicular to each other WITHOUT SEAMING. Woohoo!

It's the edges

With a shawl, the two edges happen to be on two separate pieces of fabric. The cowl is one piece of fabric, but it still has two edges that need to be joined. The edges are the key, not the quantity of fabric pieces.

For this to work on the cowl, I'd need live stitches on the cast-on edge, and this is where the provisional cast-on comes in.

What is a provisional cast-on?

A provisional cast-on is a temporary cast-on that can be undone later to leave live stitches that you can work with. You can cast on provisionally with any method using scrap yarn, but I love a crochet method. It’s straightforward to work and unzips easily to release the live stitches. You don’t need to know how to crochet to use this method. With any new tool or technique, it may seem fiddly at first, but with practice, it will go more smoothly.

How does a crochet provisional cast-on hold live stitches?

The base of this provisional cast-on is a crochet chain. Each chain holds a live stitch. (Technically, it's the bottom bumps of the crochet chain that hold the live stitches, but that is totally geeky FYI.)

In knitting, when we unknit or rip, we can only do this easily from the working end. We can't unknit or rip from the beginning. If we try to undo knit stitches from the beginning, the only thing we can do is pick out each stitch individually. Or we can snip the stitches.

The same applies to a crochet chain. With that in mind:

When you do a crochet provisional cast-on, chain a few extra chains at the end. Then you'll know from which end of the cast-on to start unzipping.
If you try to unzip from the beginning of the cast-on, it will not unzip. This end doesn't unzip at all and must be picked or ✂️. Unzipping from the correct end is effortless - no fiddling with the scrap yarn.

Another benefit to those few extra chains

Some amount of time will pass between doing the provisional cast-on and the finishing of your project. Whether the project takes a few weeks to finish or sits in a WIP pile for a few years, you may not remember or be able to tell from which end to unzip. With these extra chains, you can go directly to the side with the extra chains when you're ready to unzip.

What if you didn't crochet a few extra chains and you start to unzip from the beginning?

If you find yourself starting to unzip from the beginning end, don't proceed any further. It's not too late to stop here, move to the other end, and start unzipping there. Just make sure any live stitches you started to unzip are secure.

The bonus tip

Have you done a provisional cast-on before and dropped stitches? Place a lifeline through the first row of stitches after the provisional cast-on!

While you're unzipping and placing the live stitches onto a needle, it's very possible to miss a stitch, resulting in a dropped stitch. It happens no matter how careful one is.

Having a lifeline on that first row of stitches is an insurance policy in case stitches are dropped. You can place the lifeline after you've worked that first row after the provisional cast-on. Or you can place the lifeline later.

Since I'm known to begin projects which end up in a WIP pile for a long time (meaning years), I prefer to place the lifeline just before I'm ready to unzip. If lifelines sit too long in your knitting, they can leave a permanent indentation line in the stitches going across. Unfortunately, blocking is not a guarantee to remove the indentation.

At whatever point you choose to place the lifeline, use a smooth yarn that's a lighter weight than and in a contrasting color to the working yarn. Cotton yarn or cotton embroidery thread is a great option. It's smooth and won't get tangled or snagged in your working yarn.

I have two skeins of fingering weight cotton yarn in white and a light gray just for provisional cast-ons. I try to save and reuse the scrap yarn if it's not too short. If the yarn is curly after unzipping, I give it a rinse in water, and that straightens it out enough to use again.

POST-GAME WRAP

There are different methods to cast on provisionally, and the crochet cast-on is my favorite. What's your favorite provisional cast-on method? Let me know in the comments below.

ON DECK

If you have questions or would like a deeper understanding about a specific technique, let me know, and I can write about it in a future blog post. If you have this question, it's very likely someone else does, too!

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Until next time, happy making!

Yvonne 🧡

The Crochet Provisional Cast-On