PRETTY IN PICOT

QI love the look of picot edging and would like to use it as a cast on for my socks, but I keep getting in a bit of a muddle. Can you help me decipher it?

Karen Crescent, London

Of course! Picots are such a sweet way to start cuffs, but can be used to trim anything you fancy. The scallops are formed by casting off half as many stitches as you cast on repeatedly during your cast-on. Variations are possible, from little bumps to long tassels, depending on how many stitches you cast on and off. If you knit your stitches into the back loop on the first row following the picot cast-on, it will tighten them up a little and give you a better finish. Make a slip knot and place it on your left-hand needle.

Using the knitted cast-on, go into this stitch knitwise with the RH needle and cast on one stitch...

3 ...then repeat until there are five stitches on the needle.

4 Knit the first two stitches through the back loop.

5 Slip the first stitch over the second one, casting it off. Cast off the next stitch through the back loop in the same manner, leaving two stitches on the left-hand needle.

6 Slip the stitch on the right-hand needle back to the left-hand needle purlwise 7 Cast on four more stitches using the knitted cast-on as before (five sts now on left-hand needle after cast-off).

8 Cast off two stitches and slip the stitch on the right-hand needle back to the left-hand needle (picot points are now starting to form).

9 Repeat Steps 7 and 8 until the required number of stitches have been cast on to the needle. Rachael