Emily Ocker's Cast On

Sedgwick, the May Hat from the Year of Bulky Hats is worked from the top down in the round. The hat begins with Emily Ocker's Cast On, a circular cast on that leaves a clean and seamless circular loop. If you are familiar with the magic ring or magic circle in crochet, this cast on should be quite familiar to you! You may notice that most versions of this cast on utilize a crochet hook, but we find that a knitting needle works just fine! Step 1 / Create a loop with your working yarn with the short end below and facing down and the long end on top and facing up. Step 2a / Insert your needle into the loop. Wrap working yarn around the needle as if to knit. Step 2b / Pull stitch through the loop. Step 3 / Wrap working yarn around needle, pull loop through stitch. (You may have to use your finger here to help the loop over.) Repeat Steps 2-3 until you have the required number of stitches on your needle. Sedgwick calls for 6 stitches, which is why there are 6 stitches in our example. Step 4 / Transfer the stitches evenly onto double pointed needles in preparation for working in the round. You may find this step to be a little awkward and cumbersome due to the weight of the double pointed needles, but it will all work out! Step 5 / Secure the needles and stitches with one hand, holding the work close to a flat surface. With your other hand, gently pull the short yarn end to tighten the loop. Once secured, your cast on is complete! All you will need to do when you're done knitting is weave in the end inside your work. If you want to see the cast on in live action, we made a video for you as well! Check it out on YouTube here.