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Step One

April 16, 2012

Hi Pals! Today is the first official day of the Spud & Chloë Trifecta Knitalong! Are you excited? We are excited!

A quick update, the Trifecta does have errata in case you purchased your pattern when it was first published in 2009. The scarf takes two hanks of colors A, B and C not as previously stated only one. So sorry for this inconvenience.

The first step to tackle for this project is the provisional cast-on. Perhaps you are an old pro when it comes to this technique, but it can be a bit fiddly until you have practiced it.

It truly is a worthwhile skill to add to your repertoire. For example, if you have long arms or a long torso and frequently knit sweaters from the bottom-up you may have experienced a situation where pieces of the garment aren’t quite long enough.

With the provisional cast-on this issue is eliminated. If the sweater body or sleeves end up too short, simply unravel and work down to the appropriate length. An excellent knitting skill to have.

This is an excellent video on how to do a provisional cast-on. There are a few different ways to do a provisional cast-on, but using the crochet hook is my preferred method.

This video even has some of the best tips for successfully executing this type of cast-on.

Chains to mark the start of the cast-on.

It is very important to chain a few stitches prior to stitching around the needle. It makes undoing the cast-on vastly easier later on.

As you can see, the provisional cast-on was worked in Calypso (7806) and the first row in Bumble Bee (7811) is complete.

Another helpful trick is adding a knot or two to the tail of the provisional cast-on. This way you will know “which end KNOT to pull out.” Very clever!

Here is how my Trifecta looks so far. Just the provisional cast-on and one row are complete.

Knit in Spud & Chloë Fine.

How did you do? Is the provisional cast-on intimidating or easier than you expected? Be sure to find me with any questions over in the Friends of Spud & Chloë Group on Ravelry.

We’ll take this part slow, but I’ll be back shortly with the next part of the process. Good luck and we’ll stick together!

Take care Pals!

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