Tutorial: Crochet provisional CO

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With scrap yarn, start with a slipknot.

With a crochet hook the same or similar size as your needles, work up the same number of chains as the stitches you’re supposed to CO, plus a few more.  Cut the yarn and pull it through, so it doesn’t go anywhere.

Turn the chain over. See those bumps in the middle?

Start picking up stitches through these bumps.

(Stick your needle in, and pull up a loop of your working yarn.) Continue in this manner until you have CO the required number of stitches.

After a few stitches, your work should look as shown above. The neat right side of the crochet chain will be facing you. Time to start knitting!

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When it’s time to remove the CO, you undo the end where you left off the chain – not the end with the slip knot. When you start pulling out the chain, you’ll end up with live sts from your knitted work. One at a time, place these sts back on your working needle.