How to Avoid the Provisional Cast-on Pitfall

I tend towards a "there has got to be a way", problem solving personality when it comes to things like my knitting.  This has apparently resulted in developing a way to pick up stitched from a provisional cast-on, avoiding the usual pitfall of ending up with one less stitch than was originally in the cast-on.

I honestly was not aware of this common problem until it was brought to my attention by someone who was making my ABIGALE shrug.  In this pattern, I use a provisional cast-on at the mid-back as the start point for knitting the project.  This wonderful knitter had a very valid concern.  She worried that knitters working with this pattern might be confused by my instructions: "Remove provisional CO, picking up all 140 sts...".  The foreseen problem being that, if casting on 140 stitches, only 139 stitches will be available for pick up from the provisional cast-on.  A very good explanation of this can be found at TECHknitting.  At this link you will find solutions to this problem, but here I will provide one of my own -- avoiding the pitfall all together!

The diagram at top was done up to look much like a diagram on TECHknitting (which I have inserted below it), in order to demonstrate how I look at the loops and "tails" from the provisional cast-on differently.  The big difference here is that I include the "tail" on the far left of my diagram, which is created when the ball yarn is pulled up to work the next row of the project.  By doing so, I end up with just as many stitches from "tails", as I had from the loops of the original stitches.  In an attempt to make this clearer, the following is a photo tutorial, demonstrating the pick-up of this final "tail".

I started out by using the Crochet Provisional Cast-on demonstrated in Tubular Cast-on: Part 1, casting on 8 stitches.  I then worked up a number of rows in stocking stitch, using a larger than recommended needle to help make the stitches show up better in the photos.

The yellow arrow tab is pointing to the last "tail" which would normally be picked up off the provisional cast-on.  The purple  arrow tab is pointing to the "tail" created when the ball yarn goes up to work the next row.  This "tail" is caught in the waste yarn of the provisional cast-on, just like all the other "tails".

In the photo above, all "tails" have been picked up, minus the last two.  The first from the needle is the "tail" pointed out by the yellow arrow tab in the  previous photo, and the second is the "tail" pointed out by the purple arrow tab.

After picking up the usual final "tail" (the first from the needle in previous photo), what I refer to as the my final "tail" is still caught in the waste yarn.

Pick up this "tail" to create the final picked up stitch from the provisional cast-on.

There are 8 stitches from the original knit portion off the provisional cast-on showing at the bottom of the photo, and 8 stitches from the pick-up at the top of the photo.

This is just one way of dealing with the provisional cast-on pitfall.  Whether you choose to use this, or one of the solutions provided on TECHknitting, I hope that all who purchase ABIGALE will enjoy their finished project!