Crochet Provisional Cast On

A provisional cast on is a method of casting on which can be undone later so that the stitches can be worked in the opposite direction. To work a crochet provisional cast on:

Use a piece of smooth waste yarn in a contrasting colour and a crochet hook that is a similar size to the needles.
Make a slip knot with the waste yarn and place it on the crochet hook.

Hold the needle and yarn in your left hand and the crochet hook in the right. Take the yarn behind the needle, wrap it around the hook and pull it through the slip knot. This will make a stitch on the needle.

Take the yarn back behind the needle, wrap it around the hook and pull it through the loop on the crochet hook, creating another stitch.

Repeat until you have the required number of stitches on the needle.

Cut the yarn and pull it through the last loop on the hook.

Tie a knot in the yarn to mark that this is the end that will be undone later.

Change to the working yarn and knit the first row.

Picking up stitches from the provisional cast on:

The first stitch will only be a half stitch, use the working needle to pick up this loop.

Continue across the row placing each stitch onto the needle.

To remove the waste yarn untie the knotted end and pull gently.

The waste yarn should then unravel leaving the live stitches on the needle. Check that you have the correct number of stitches, if you missed the half stitch then you can increase one stitch in the first row.