Fig. 348. Casting on with picots.
Cast on as many stitches as you want in this manner and then pick up the picots thus formed, with an auxiliary needle, and knit them off like ordinary stitches.
This method of casting on may be varied thus in the following manner: having cast on the stitches as in fig. [348], throw the thread over the needle and knit two stitches together.
Plain stitch (fig. [349]).—This is the easiest stitch and the first which a knitter has to learn. It is executed as follows: Put the right-hand needle in, upwards from below, under the front part of the first stitch on the left-hand needle, lay the thread from right to left under the needle, draw it through the loop, and drop the loop off the left needle.
Plain knitting is employed wherever a perfectly smooth, even surface is required. It looks quite differently on the wrong side from what it does on the right where it presents the appearance of vertical rows of plaiting.
Back, or seam-stitch (fig. [350]).—You may intentionally knit the wrong side of plain knitting. This is called purling and is done, in the following way: lay the thread over the left needle, and put the right one, downwards from above, behind the thread, into the loop on the left needle, lay the thread upwards from below, over the right needle, draw it through the loop, and drop the loop off the left needle. This stitch is used in knitting patterns, and for marking horizontal lines in smooth surfaces, such as the seam of a stocking, for instance.
