Draft
Chinese Waitress Cast On
A cast on with a braided, reversible edge.
7 min videoGood for decorative edges, reversible pieces
The Chinese waitress cast on is from the knitted on family of cast ons. It gets its name from a story in the book Cast On, Bind Off: a waitress in China taught it to a friend of the author.
It makes a double braided edge. There is a set of interlocking loops on one side and another on the other side, so both faces of the edge are decorative. One side looks much like a regular long tail cast on, with a little curve to the fabric at the other end.
The edge has a moderate amount of stretch, so it is fairly elastic and good for most projects. It is an interesting alternative when you do not want the usual long tail method.
1 Make a slip knot
Make a slip knot and place it on your needle. Tighten it so it is snug but still moves easily along the needle. Too tight and it is hard to work with.
2 Wrap the yarn around both needles
This cast on uses two needles. Tension the yarn through your fingers however is comfortable, and hold the working needle right up next to the knot. Bring the working yarn under the working needle, over the main needle, back under the working needle and over the top, so you have a loop around both needles.
3 Draw the yarn through
Tighten the wraps down. Treat the loop like a stitch and draw the yarn through both wraps. That gets you started.
4 Turn the working needle around
Put your thumb on the stitch to hold it in place. Pull the working needle out and put it back into the same stitch from the other direction. This was the prep stitch. Now the cast on proper begins.
5 Wrap again
Come under the working needle, over the main needle, then under and around the working needle again. The working needle is the one on the bottom.
6 Pull through and bind off
Draw the yarn through between the two stitches on the main needle. That gives you two stitches on the working needle. Lift the first one over the second and off, as if you were binding it off.
7 Switch the working needle
Hold the base of the stitch with your thumb, take the working needle out and put it back into that stitch from the opposite direction. You are set up for the next stitch.
8 Then keep going
Over, under and around, pull through, bind off, switch the needle. It sounds like a lot of steps, but once you have the hang of it you get a nice rhythm going.
9 Finish the last stitch
When you have enough stitches, place the stitch on the working needle back onto the main needle and tighten it down.