I’ve given this spiel before, but yes, yes I do generally cast on over two needles (at least for the long tail cast on).⁠

Now, I see a few of you out there warming up your fingers right now to send me impassioned lectures about how this is bad and wrong and will bring about the downfall of society as we know it. Please don’t.⁠

I’m not doing it this way to make my cast on stretchier or looser. The type of cast on you pick mostly determines how stretchy it is. The amount of space between your cast on stitches mostly determines how lose it is (at least with this cast on). ⁠Working a long tail cast on over two needles doesn’t change either of those things.  But casting on over two needles does change how big the first row of stitches is. And that’s why I do it.⁠

See, I’m a loose knitter. Seriously loose. Hold your knitting wrong and your needles will fall right out type loose.

But I cast on tightly. And with the long tail cast on, you’re basically working the first row of stitches as you cast on. So if I do the long tailed cast on tightly over just one needle, that first row of stitches ends up way smaller than the subsequent rows. And that’s no good.

So instead I work it over two needles, and that makes that first row of stitches (the ones I make as part of the cast on) be the same size as the rest (the ones I make when I’m knitting the piece).⁠

It works perfectly for me. If you’re a loose knitter but you cast on tightly, it might work for you. Experimenting so that you can understand your knitting and learn what works for you is great. I highly recommend it! Sending cranky messages to strangers on the internet telling them they’re doing something wrong is not great. I do not recommend it at all.