Stretchy Enough Cast-On

Throughout the process of developing the crimped stitch patterns, I have run into the problem of how much they spread. This means that cast-ons and bind-offs need to  be r-e-a-l-l-y stretchy. I can usually bind off loosely enough; I just concentrate on stretching the edge as I go along. The cast-on is a problem, in part because you can't really know in advance how much the pattern stitch will spread.

So I went looking for elastic cast-ons.  Here is the video I settled on. This cast-on is meant for k1, p1 ribbing and you can see in the photos how well it works. But, I thought it looked skimpy for a pattern stitch where the cast-on is distorted by the stitches that are drawn up through it.

So I worked out a fix, wrote some notes, and proceeded to get swamped with other things for a couple of months. I started re-swatching to get myself back up to speed and now I can't imagine why I thought the original is anything but adorable. I can see that it also has some extra potential for being embellished. So, that is next. Until then . . .

PS: If you do try the cast-on in the video, note that every other stitch sits twisted on the needle and needs to be worked through the back on the first row.