The main difference between the long-tail cast-on and the regular “knitted” cast-on is how many strands of yarn they involve. The long-tail cast-on uses two strands of yarn: the “working” yarn attached to the ball, and the “yarn tail” which runs from your needle until the end of the thread. It can only be used at the start of your project. In contrast, the knitted cast-on is a short-tail cast-on, which means it uses just one strand of yarn. Unlike the long-tail method, the regular knitted cast-on can be used to cast-on at any point in your knitting – at the start, in the middle of a row, and at the end.