Tubular Cast-on for Socks tutorial

In my search for a stretchier cast on for socks, because my normal long tail cast on wasn't stretchy enough for my dad, I tried a tubular cast on. The problem was that it was always made for flat items and no one that I could find had adapted it for anything round or for socks. This has been tested by my dad and is stretchy but if you don't do the ribbing it may have some trouble scrunching back. Anyway, if you try this and run into trouble just leave me a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

So to begin you are going to need a scrap yarn that is the same weight as the yarn being used in the project. To cast on make one loop like the one pictured below.

Then Holding the short end from above, make the same loop and add it to the needle and keep adding loops until you have half of the loops needed in your project, for instance if the pattern calls for 40 sts then make 20 loops.

Then starting at the end with the last loop you made switch to your main color and purl across dividing them on separate needles if you're using dpn's.

Once you purl across every loop join both ends without twisting and purl another round.

Now the next row will double the amount of stitches you have. First you will purl the next stitch on your left needle.

Then pick up the held loop between the purled stitch and the next stitch on the left needle.

Place the loop on your left hand needle and knit it.

Repeat purling and picking up and knitting stitches across the round. The last stitch will also be purled although the loop will be attached to the purled stitch and may not look like the other loops. You should now have twice the number of stitches you looped which is the number you needed to cast on.

Then work in the 1x1 rib and remove scrap yarn. You should end up wth something like this:

So I hope this helps and if you use it I'd love to hear about it. You can contact me at ladyneaknitsalot AT yahoo DOT com and I can also help you with any questions about this if you need help.