What is a Channel Island cast on? How do I do it? Any links to a how-to description? The one link I found didn’t appear very clear.
I’ve never done it, but I found a fairly clear instruction here. It has pictures and everything. My problem is that since I’m left-handed, I do everything backwards, so that makes for confusion sometimes turning everything 180 in my head. I guess I could try it and see if it really does work as well as it looks like it would.
What are you looking to use it for?
Have you tried the book “Stitchionary”? Mrs Blather’s store swears by it.
I’m making my first garment, a shell from a pattern by Knitpicks.
I spent 20 minutes yesterday just trying to noodle out the instructions. It says my swatch for gauge should be 4" square over pattern. I took that to mean that I was to knit the pattern for the swatch.
However, it says I’m supposed to be 31 sts/32 rows to the 4" square, but the pattern doesn’t equal 31 stiches. It’s 33 across. So I’m knitting that and I can see the pattern emerge. It’s fairly simple.
I’m terrified. I might have to wander over to Michael’s on a weekend and see if the knitting teacher can help me out.
Thanks for the link. I never did understand why one needed such a long tail…you’re not going to knit it, and I just cast on straight from the skein, so I don’t “run out.”
If the pattern is a 33 stitch pattern (wow - that’s one long repeat), then cast on 66 and repeat the pattern once. Knit for about 6 inches worth of length. Then cast off. Block it. Measure a 4x4 inch square in the center of your 8ishx6ish inch piece and make sure that you’ve got 31 stitches & 32 rows. If you’ve got too many, then use a bigger needle, if you’ve got too few, use a smaller & repeat.
You don’t want to make a 4x4 inch square because things always get weird on the edges - what you want is for those rows in the center to be at the right gauge.
Gauge measurements are almost always given in inches or four inch squares, that’s a standard thing, and the fact that it’s also close to the number of stitches in a pattern repeat is merely an unfortunate coincidence.
Generally speaking, a gauge swatch, to be effective, should be at least 6 x 6, so that you can actually measure the gauge somewhere in the middle of it, where the stitches aren’t stretched out and such. Your goal isn’t to knit a swatch that’s exactly 4 x 4, but to knit a large sample of fabric and ensure that a 4 x 4 measure in the middle of it crosses 31 st / 32 rows.
When doing pattern repeats in gauge swatches, I generally try for at least 3 across, but in your case, I might opt for only 2 because the repeats are so long.
The repeat is only 16. There’s an 8 stitch and a 9 stich section on each edge, plus a selvedge stitch, which isn’t included in the pattern.
Then, I thought this thing was knitted in the round, but apparently not.
My other problem is I don’t know how to count the stiches. I knitted the pattern but it’s stockinette and garter with yarnovers (it’s this shell, by the way) so I’m not sure what counts as one stitch. So I counted from the bound off row, since I know how many I cast on, and checked from there. I think I made my swatch according to gauge, so now I’m off! If I can only figure out how to work in the armholes with the yoke and the neck band…
Actually, I used Goodsearch powered by Yahoo!, since a portion of the searches goes to my kids’ school.
Anyhoo, I found the designer of the shell, a woman named Jolene Treace, and I got an e-mail address for her! I’m going to e-mail her my silly questions.
A YO counts as one stitch, so you can add those in. Although some patterns with YOs go up and down in stitch count on the different rows at different points in the pattern, so you have to figure out which row you want to count for the exact number.
Sounds like going to the source is the best way to get your specific questions answered, though!
I’d just count the pattern repeats and hope that two 16 stitch repeats (32 stitches) is very slightly longer than the 4 inches you need.
Okay, what would happen if I didn’t do a Channel Island cast on? I’m having problems figuring out how to do it, and I can either wait a week to see if the knitting teacher at Michael’s can help me, or I can forge ahead and hope for the best. I didn’t do a CI cast on when I did my swatch, and as far as I can tell, the pattern looked fine.
From the link posted by Mama Tiger, you’ll lose the decorative edge if you do a standard cast on. If you’re happy with a straight edge and the pattern measures correctly, then no worries. It really depends on how much you enjoy “ripping” - my best effort was a crocheted poncho this year, done in one piece, started over 4 times on the way up and then another three while working out the neck. Good luck
Well, it’s one of those knitting things where I’m frustrated as hell, until I figure it out, then I can add another “skill” to my knitting resume, along with knowing how to mosaic knit, cable knit, and make bobbles.
I think I’m going to figure it out, otherwise it will niggle at me that you didn’t do it right, you gave up, you could have added another notch to your knitting expertise but dammit…I WANT TO START ON MY NEW PROJECT!!! I want to whip on 147 stitches and start! Grrrrr…no, I’m going to do it right.
Dan, I don’t suppose your wife can e-mail me, could she?
Here’s a few other resources for the Channel Island cast-on:
This book has really clear black and white pictures:
Knitting Ganseys by Beth Brown-Reisel, pps. 14-16.
This book has a written description:
Cool Socks, Warm Feet by Lucy Neatby, pps. 108-110.
Beetle Blog’s Channel Island Cast-on page
I hope you can find someone at Michael’s that has a clue. You’d probably have better luck at a dedicated knitting shop if there’s one near you.
I think part of my problem is I’m used to casting on with two needles, and this technique only calls for one.
Jolene e-mailed me back. She was very gracious, saying she would love to help me, but she had to refresh her memory about the pattern.