The Long Tail Cast On: An Easy Step-By-Step Guide for Beginner Knitters With 5-Minute Video

ALSO KNOWN AS: THE SLINGSHOT CAST ON, CONTINENTAL CAST ON, DOUBLE YARN CAST ON, TWO-STRAND CAST ON

Are you a beginner knitter looking for an easy, durable, and stretchy cast on that is both beautiful and simple? Then the standard long tail cast on is your guy. There are so many reasons that it is one of the first cast ons taught to beginner knitters, yet continues to be used by experienced knitters as they grow and expand their skillset.

It’s simple: It is easy to learn and get the hang of quickly
It looks good: It creates a neat, beautiful edge on both the front and back side, suitable for many different projects, from socks and sweaters, to scarves and blankets
It’s durable: It produces a very strong, secure edge perfect for projects that need to withstand regular wear and tear, like sweaters, hats, and mittens.
It’s stretchy: It’s a moderately elastic cast on for those times that you need a little extra give – like the tops of socks, or neck edges and sleeve cuffs of sweaters.
It’s stable: It creates a very stable edge that is easy to knit off of. This is the #1 reason I recommend the long tail cast on to new knitters. It’s much easier to knit into and complete that dreaded first row. (compared to most short-tail cast ons) This is because the long tail cast on not only creates the edge but also one row of knit stitches. Because of this, it provides a solid foundation for the rest of your project, making it easy to transition from the cast on to the actual knitting.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to long tail cast on the easy way, with lots of pictures and a video tutorial so you can learn whatever way works best for you.

Materials Needed:

yarn of your choice
1 knitting needle of your choice

Step-By-Step Guide:

*Set-up to get into slingshot position:

Measure out a long tail of yarn that is approximately 3 times longer than the length that the finished edge will end up being. I have a detailed post going over the different methods for determining how much yarn to leave for long tail cast ons.
Make a slip knot, and place it on the needle.
Position the yarn so that the ball of yarn (working yarn) is over the index finger travelling away from your body, and the long tail is coming over your thumb travelling towards your body.
Grab both ends of yarn in your palm with your remaining fingers, and rotate your hand so your palm is facing upward, creating a “slingshot” position.

*Casting on stitches:

With the needle, enter the loop on the thumb from below.
Grab the yarn on the index finger with the needle from above.
Pull the yarn you grabbed through the loop on the thumb, creating a new stitch.
Drop the loop off your thumb and gently tighten

*Repeat steps 5-8 for the # of stitches required.

Video Tutorial:

Here is a quick video showing how to do the long tail cast on, as well as what it looks like on the front and back with garter stitch, stockinette stitch, and 1×1 ribbing.

Tips and Tricks:

How do you make the long tail cast on stretchier?

I constantly see the suggestion to cast on using a bigger needle, or to even use 2 needles held together, in order to make the long tail cast on stretchier. This is a common misconception, and will actually only give you a row of very large stitches at the beginning of your work that doesn’t match the rest, without significantly affecting the stretch of the actual edge.

You think you’re getting more stretch, but A) it’s not much, and B) it comes at the expense of having a sloppy-looking first row of stitches that is larger than the rest of your work.

Remember, one of the reasons it’s easier to knit the first row after casting on using the long tail, is because you have already created 1 row of knit stitches while casting on the edge. That first row of stitches is composed of the loops sitting on the needle after you finish the cast on.

So, by using a larger needle, all you are doing is creating bigger stitches in that first row. The actual edge (which is the part that determines how stretchy the cast on is) is not affected by this at all.

To make the long tail cast on more stretchy you actually have to adjust the yarn between stitches, by spreading those loops on the needle a bit further apart.

What I do, is after casting a new stitch onto the needle but before tightening it up, I place my right thumb on top of the previous stitch that’s already tightened on the needle to keep it in place, and then I tighten and position the new stitch beside it, intentionally leaving a small gap between them so that they are not right beside each other and touching.

Ideally, you want the cast on edge to match the tension of the knitting that’s going to follow it. For example, if you are getting 5 stitches per inch for the knitting that’s going to follow the cast on, then you want to match that, and approximately space out the stitches you are casting on so that 5 cast on stitches measure approximately 1 inch when they are sitting relaxed. (not pushed together or stretched apart)

There is, of course, a limit to how stretchy you can make the standard long tail cast on, and leaving too large of gaps between stitches can give you loops that hang and look bad when the knitting is not stretched out.

A little goes a long way – you don’t need to leave huge gaps between stitches in order to get more stretch. To keep things neat and even, focus on keeping the distance between stitches as consistent as possible.

If you need significantly more stretch, there are other cast ons that might be better suited, like the German Twisted Cast On or the Slipknot Cast On.

How do you make the long tail cast on less stretchy?

Alternatively, if you don’t want the edge to be all that stretchy, and you need it to be more sturdy and hold it’s shape better over time (like for shoulder seams that will be pulled downward by the weight of the sleeves and the rest of the sweater, for example) simply cast on the stitches closer together, with less yarn between the stitches. This will limit the amount the stitches can spread apart.