Ask any great knitter how they became good at the craft and they will tell you, “Practice!”. But as many knitters will tell you, practice swatches can be boring to work, and if you knit enough of them, you will find your home overrun with practice swatches that have no practical purpose other than, well, practice.
These skill builder patterns allow you to practice three different methods of working an I-cord Cast On , an I-cord Bind off, Integrated and, Applied I-cord edges. Worked using an easy to remember knit and slipped stitch pattern they make great television or travel knitting projects.
One of the really nice things about knitting is that there is usually more than one way to achieve the same ends. Try all three Cast On methods presented here for the coaster pattern, to find which one suits you best, then practice some more with the dish cloth pattern and your preferred cast on. Finally build those skills some more by working the Hot Pad pattern, which introduces an Applied I-cord edge to join two pieces together.
While starting the I-cord in all the Cast On Methods shown here is worked as a provisional cast on using half hitch knots, feel free to use any provisional cast on you prefer.