Tutorial · July 23, 2026 · 7 min read · By the Stitchfolk team

How to cast on for knitters: a beginner tutorial on the long-tail cast on

The cast on is the very first move you make in any knitting project — the row of loops that goes onto the needle before anything else can happen. This tutorial walks you through the long-tail cast on, the technique we teach every Stitchfolk beginner because it forgives a row of uneven tension and shows your stitches as you make them.

If you have been wanting to learn knitting, the words “cast on” are the first new vocabulary you will learn. There is nothing mysterious about them and no special tool you need — just yarn, one needle, and a loop on your thumb. The cast on is the move that puts the first row of stitches onto the needle. Every other moment in knitting — every knit row, every purl row, every bind off — depends on those first loops being there. Done well, cast on is invisible. Done badly, it tightens your whole first row and makes the next four rows miserable.

1. What “cast on” actually means

Cast on is the first row. It creates the stitches that every following row will knit into. You will not have a finished object without it, and you cannot start a project until it feels comfortable in your hands. That is why we teach it before any stitch pattern, before any swatch, before any project.

Think of it as the foundation of a house. You do not see it once the walls go up, but the entire building sits on top of it. A sloppy cast on makes the first row hard to knit and pulls every row above it slightly out of shape. A loose, even cast on disappears into the bottom edge of your work and lets the rest of the fabric behave the way the pattern intends.

2. Why we teach the long-tail cast on first

Several cast on methods exist — the knit cast on, the cable cast on, the knitted loop. We teach beginners one of them: the long-tail cast on . Three reasons.

You can see what you have already made.

Each new long-tail stitch leaves a small V at the bottom of the needle. That V is the same V every knit stitch produces — so the moment you finish your cast on, you are already looking at the shape you will spend the next month making.

No measuring steps.

Other methods ask you to wrap the yarn around the needle a specific number of times and count. The long-tail method asks you to hold the yarn a certain length and let the stitches form. There is nothing to count while you are doing it.

It forgives a wobbly first row.

Long-tail stitches stretch a little, which means a slightly uneven tension on the first try still produces a wearable edge. The wrong cast on here and you will fight the fabric for the entire project.

3. The tools you need (you already have them)

We are not going to hand you a new shopping list. The tutorial in

Your first knitting project covers the whole starter kit, and you need exactly two things from that kit for the cast on: one skein of yarn and one needle . That is it. No stitch markers, no measuring tape, no second pair of needles, no specialty tool. If you have yarn and a needle, you can do this tonight.

4. Make the slip knot

Every cast on starts with a slip knot

— the single loop that goes onto the needle first, so the rest of the row has something to anchor onto. It is the only knot in knitting where you want a knot.

Pull about

15 cm (6 in) of yarn from the skein and make a loop with the free end sitting on top of the yarn coming from the ball. Pick up the working yarn (the strand still attached to the skein), reach through the loop with your fingers, pull a small bight back through, and slip it onto the needle. Pull both ends to snug the knot around the needle — tight enough that it does not slide off, loose enough that you can slide it up and down the needle with a little resistance.

That one loop is your anchor. Every stitch you cast on after this one will sit next to it on the needle, to the right.

5. The long-tail cast on, step by step

With your slip knot on the needle in your right hand, the steps below put a working loop onto the needle. The rhythm is a four-count motion. Go slow for the first five stitches; it picks up on its own after that.

Estimate about

1 cm of tail for every stitch you plan to cast on, plus a little extra for weaving in later. Twenty stitches? Leave a tail of about 25–30 cm. Sixty stitches? Leave a tail closer to 70 cm. It does not need to be exact — a little too long is better than too short.

Hold the needle in your right hand. Pinch the tail and the working yarn together at the slip knot with the thumb and index finger of your left hand, so the yarn makes a triangle: tail going down to your palm, working yarn going up to the ball.

Drop your left thumb down and rotate your hand so the tail runs down the back of your thumb and the working yarn runs behind your fingers. The working yarn sits loosely in your palm; the tail is pinched against your thumb by the yarn from the ball — that pinch is your tension.

Bring the needle up under the working yarn (the strand from the ball), over the top of your thumb, and pick up the loop that has formed around your thumb from the inside of the thumb. You want the needle to enter between your thumb knuckle and the yarn.

Twist the needle forward so it points back toward you, and pick up the loop from your thumb. Slide the resulting loop onto the needle and snug it up next to the stitches already there — not tight. Loose is correct; you can always tighten later.

Reach back with the needle, pick up the thumb-loop again, slide it on, and tighten just enough that the new stitch is the same size as the one before it.

Repeat the reach-and-pick-up motion: needle under working yarn, over the thumb, through the loop, slide on, snug. Each repetition adds one stitch. The whole motion takes about three seconds per stitch by stitch five.

Stop when you have the number of stitches your project calls for. Your right hand holds the needle; your left thumb is still pinched around the tail. Drop the thumb, pull gently on the working yarn to even the last few stitches, and you are ready for row one.

Read that list twice. The first time through, focus on figuring out which strand is the tail and which is the working yarn. The second time through, focus on the rhythm of the motion: under, over, through, slide. After two read-throughs, sit down with yarn and a needle and cast on twenty stitches three times. By stitch twenty on the third try, you will have it.

6. Count the stitches you just made

The fastest way to know if you cast on the right number is to count the

V shapes along the bottom edge of the needle. One V per stitch. You cast on twenty? You should see twenty V’s on the needle, each with two legs.

The V is also your fairness check — a stitch that is much smaller than its neighbor will knit tight in the next row, and a stitch that is much larger will leave a hole. Walk your eye along the row and tighten any loops that sag, loosen any that pinch. This two-minute count is the difference between a calm row one and an unhappy row ten.

7. The three mistakes beginners make (and the fix)

Every new knitter runs into the same three problems on the cast on. None of them are a sign that you are bad at this — they are a sign you are learning. Each one has a one-line fix.

The thumb loop is too tight.

Your cast on pulls the whole first row into a hard, narrow band. The fix: drop your left thumb a little further from the pinch. The more you relax the thumb, the looser the loops on the needle will be. Tight thumb tension pins the cast on; relaxed thumb tension lets it breathe.

You lost the tail.

Two strands of yarn come off your knitting and it is suddenly unclear which is the tail and which is the working yarn. The fix: when in doubt, the tail is the shorter of the two strands. The longer strand goes back to the ball. If you cut the wrong one, your stitches will unravel — pull slowly, look closely, and re-do the slip knot if you are not sure.

The first knit row looks uneven.

Some stitches flap loose, others look pinched, and the whole row looks like it is fighting you. The fix: knit two stitches looser than feels right, then tighten up gradually across the row. Your hands learn to even out their tension on their own within the first skein. A slightly bumpy first row is normal; it will not show in the finished piece.

8. Cast on for your first real project

With the cast on in your hands, you are ready to make something. A short cast on —

20 stitches

— is enough for the swatch in

Your first knitting project , the four-by-four inch square that teaches you how knit, purl, turn, and bind off go together before you commit to a finished object.

Move up to around

40 stitches for a dishcloth or washcloth — knit across, turn, knit back, repeat until the piece is square. The

Easy Peasy Knit Dishcloth is written for exactly that count and finishes in two evenings.

Go bigger —

60 to 80 stitches

— for a scarf or a beanie. The

Beginner Ribbed Beanie starts at 60 cast on stitches and uses the long-tail technique you just learned. Browse the rest of the pattern library for the next shape that catches your eye — washcloth, scarf, hat, cowl, mitts.

That is the whole technique: a slip knot on the needle, a four-count rhythm between thumb and needle, and one careful count of the row you just made. Everything else in knitting sits on top of this one move.

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