Cast On Bind Off Book Review and Giveaway

When it comes to casting on and binding off I have basically done it the same way since the day my grandmother taught me. Except for one of them. Grandma was a basic knitter. When she cast on to knit, she did the backward loop method. This is super easy to teach to people first learning to knit. I don't think she knew of any other way, but I assume--and I can't ask her if this is the case because she doesn't remember me anymore--that she didn't know any other type of cast on.

Anyway, I think I have told the story to you before, but I knit a bunch of swatches when I was little and that was pretty much it. Kind of like Girlfriend has done. And then I dropped knitting. Kind of like Girlfriend has done. And then in high school I knit a long striped scarf for a boyfriend and it rolled furiously and most passionately (I didn't yet know the part about adding a garter edge) and he loved it anyway. Then I never knit until I was pregnant with Girlfriend. But sitting there on a Friday afternoon a long time ago in the LYS, I showed off a sweater that I had altered to be a maternity tank. I was so proud. Then the owner walked over and tut-tutted about something. I asked what was wrong and she sneered, "What kind of cast on did you use? A backward loop? That is not good, not good at all!" And the rest of the group nodded in agreement.

Well, let's just say later I quietly checked out other options and settled on the long-tail cast on in secret. Since then, and it's been about nine years, that is the only way I have cast on except, of course, when I'm needing to do a provisional or cast on in the midst of a row and then either backward loop or cable cast on gets thrown in. What I'm getting at are actually two things.

Numero Uno: Never shame someone when they're doing something for pleasure. It's not fracking rocket science and who the heck cares if I used a dang backward loop?

Niban: If you have a no-nonsense guide to a multitude of cast ons and bind offs that will serve you well and it's not the likes of a huge encyclopedia that can double as a weapon should a burglar try to break in, then Leslie Ann Bestor's Cast On Bind Off will be a great book for you.

Although I'm perfectly happy doing the three or four in my personal repertoire, I really like the idea that instead of fiddling at the top of a top-down cap (I knit my caps and berets from the top down most of the time) that there are two in the book that will suit me well. There's a Circular Cast On that uses a crochet hook and then there's the Invisible Circular Cast On that does not. Both are pretty simple and from now on, I'll use them when I knit or design new caps. She also covers provisional cast ons, which are obviously on my radar with all the top-down stuff I do, as well as multi-color cast ons that look pretty easy. All techniques are shown side-by-side with step-by-step photography.

The only thing I didn't find--and to tell you the truth I don't know if they exist--are multi-color bind offs, which I would really like to try.

Her publisher will award a copy of this resource to randomly selected commenter on Knit and Tonic. All I ask is that you leave a comment with your favorite cast on or bind off method.

I'll leave this post open until Friday, July 13th (whoops!) and alert the winner via email. Thanks for playing!

BTW: There is a whole Blog Tour going on. If you want to increase your chances of winning, here are the next three blogs in the tour: Zeeneedle, Ramblings of an uncluttered mind and Neoknits.