There are so many knitting cast-ons (CO) out there, all with different purposes. One CO in particular has a unique edge, is stretchy but tidy, and it pairs nicely with 1x1 ribbing. It is the Tubular Cast-On. I love the way ribbing and other rib-like patterns just roll into the edge. For me, it is like the infinity pool of knitting.
There are several ways to work the tubular CO, one of the most common being the Long-Tail Tubular CO. As I am not a fan of the Long-tail method, I prefer something that looks tubular, but is far less fiddly and doesn't require guessing how long a tail one would need, particularly if many, many stitches are needing to be CO. That is the Alternating Cable Cast-On. It is a variation of the Cable Cast-On, but is worked by alternating the making of stitches knitwise and purlwise. I've made a little video to demonstrate this method. I hope you will try it out for yourselves.
- Karin