How to cast on for combination knitting and western knitting

Yesterday I wanted to proceed with a knitted lace shirt which will be a gift for my mother. I had to cast on 123 stitches and because I do not like to count, casting on is not a beloved activity. But I did it… or so I thought while watching the cable of the knitting needles becoming unscrewed. All my 123 stitches tumbled of the needle and I had to curse violently start again.

This time all went well, and I knitted the first row of the lace pattern only to notice that I must have made a mistake with the pattern… you know what I had to do: ripping everything out.
Ok third time is the charm, but wait, I never made it to the third casting on, I did something different instead. I made two short videos to explain how to cast on for different knitting styles. And because I and many of you like to crochet I explain a method where you can use a crochet hook.
But firstly, I should explain why you need different methods to cast on.

The difference of western and eastern stitch mount in knitting

(By the way, I have no idea why the knitting styles are named after geographic directions, this is so imprecise, because people knit in such diverse styles completely independent from there geographical origin)

A live knitted stitch consist of a loop wish reaches around the needle. In knitting this loop is described as having two legs. The front leg is the part of the stitch which you are looking at while knitting. The leading leg is the part of the stitch which is slightly nearer to the tip if the needle. Western knitting is defined as having the leading leg in front and in eastern knitting the leading leg is in the back.

But for the different knitting styles it is not only important which leg is back or front, but also where you insert your needle: In western knitting you insert the needle in the front leg, in the eastern style you use the back leg.
There are more differences between the knitting styles like in which direction you wrap the yarn and from which side the needle enters the stitch, but for casting on you just need to know if you want the leading leg in front or back.

Casting on

If I want to knit simply flat (not in the round) in stockinette you need to cast on in such a way that:

• for the western method the leading leg is in front
• for the eastern method the leading leg is in the back
• for my preferred method of combination knitting the leading leg is also in the back

In the videos you can see how to cast on and how to knit the first row.

Western knitting

Eastern knitting

While using the crochet cast on you have just one small difference which decides how the stitch is mounted on the needle, namely if you have the yarn in front of the knitting needle (eastern) or in the back (western) while you grab it with your crochet hook.
For casting on I normally use a one size bigger crochet hook than knitting needle.
By the way, the advantage of the crochet cast on is, that you do not need to know how much yarn you will use for the cast on like for the long tail cast on and I think it is easier for people who recently transitioned from crochet.
If you want to share your preferred casting on method or have questions – I would be happy to talk about knitting 😊

You may think: Woah… so many words and theory just for the cast on (and there are countless more methods to cast on) But in my view it is so helpful to really understand the process of knitting, because so I can always adapt my style according to what is most comfortable, fast, or neat.