Hiya! This is another tutorial I first published in Japanese and translate into English.
Today, I’m going to show you Emily Ocker’s circular cast-on. This method is suitable for circular projects starting with a few stitches, such as circular shawls or top-down hats.
All you need is your working yarn and a crochet hook, ideally with no ergonomic grip (you will see why).
1．Wrap your yarn around your index (the tail at the right side).
2．Insert your crochet hook into the loop and draw yarn through.
3．Grab the yarn again and draw through the loop produced with Step 2.
You have one stitch!
Now you can remove your index from the loop.
4．Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until you obtain the required number of stitches. (Crocheters, do not slip st in the previous loop.)
5．Here we cast on 8 stitches.
6．Distribute these sts onto double-pointed needles (2/3/3 sts). You can transfer them from the handle side if your hook has no grip!
If you don’t have a crochet with no grip, transfer them through the head side.
7．Start knitting the stitches through the back loops. I didn’t find any tutorials binging up this problem, but the cast on stitches are twisted. Knitting through back loop puts their mount right.
Here I worked one round.
Then after a few rounds, pull the tail and, as if by magic, the hole is closed!
Emily Ocker was a friend of Elisabeth Zimmerman and this method is presented in her Knitter’s Almanach.
Hope this helps for your future projects!