Knitting with an open cast-on

Dear users, dear authors,
how does the open cast-on work in knitting?
Tell me more about it.

I always use the open cast-on when I pick up the first row of stitches onto the knitting needles and either start knitting from there or continue knitting. I can also use it to create a picot edge, for example.

To do this, I first crochet a foundation chain. Then I knit stitches through these chain stitches. Later, I can easily unravel the foundation chain and place the first row of stitches on the needles.

Here’s what that looks like, for example.

I wasn’t familiar with the provisional cast-on at all. 

Could you also use this provisional cast-on, for example, if you want to knit a loop scarf together with the 3-needle technique? So far I’ve always knitted my loop scarves in the round, but then you always have to know the exact size beforehand, which often doesn’t work out for me, and I’d like to try knitting in rows, but sewing them together doesn’t look very nice when I do it. 

Thanks for the info here in the thread, and thanks to Ruth for suggesting the topic.

I’ve added the thread here:
Materials + Techniques from A to Z: Find interesting reading anytime.

Petra, that should work too—I haven’t tried it yet. Basically, you can just transfer the stitches from the first row onto a needle... for a cowl, for example, you could then knit the last and first rows together.