Totally Tubular (cast on)

I played with the tubular cast on while swatching for mittens last month but I hadn't actually worked it into a project yet. Last night I figured I might as well do something new with my familiar cuff-down socks so I started a sock with a tubular cast on. You can google for instructions online (and there are completely different methods of accomplishing it to be found) but I like Lucy Neatby's instructions in her Cool Socks Warm Feet book. Neatby gives instructions for how to do it with both K1P1 and K2P2 in the round. In comparison Nancie Wiseman refuses to explain how to do K2P2 tubular in her Finishing Techniques book -- because she doesn't like how it looks! heh.

One thing worth mentioning is that I haven't seen a photo (online or in a book) that adequately shows just how COOL this cast on actually looks in person. I took photos and they also fail to capture the magic.

Here it is, with K1P1 ribbing for the cuff of a sock:


with the waste yarn

after the waste yarn was pulled out

Hmm, I don't know why but it just looks so much better in person. The only downside is that it seems to take forever (at least it did for my 78 stitch socks on size 0 needles) and I'm not sure it's worth the effort. People rarely notice what color your socks are let alone what the cast on looks like. I suppose it's something a knitter does to please oneself, because nobody else is going to care at all.