Tips & Techniques- Garter Tab Cast On Variation

Many shawls on my website are knitted from the top down and start with a garter tab cast on. This is how it is usually done and how I explain it:

“Garter st tab cast on: it’s a neat technique used to start a shawl at the center back. Basically you make a little “tab” or rectangle of garter st and pick up sts around, allowing you to knit in 3 different directions at the same time. Once the shawl is done, there is a continuous strip of garter st across the top edge. To do so, provisionally cast on x sts. K x rows in garter st. Pick up and k st(s) along the edge of rows (central st(s)). Remove provisional cast on and k the x live sts (garter st border). You can also cast on the sts normally, and pick up the sts at the cast on edge but it makes a little demarcation.”

Now here is another method, quick and straight to the point, that I particularly like when using my very fine lace yarn Love Story. For the clarity of this tutorial however, I used a bulky yarn. I made a 3 sts border (CO 3 stitches) and picked up 1 central stitch, for a total number of 7 sttitches at the end (3+1+3).