Binding off Knitting

binding off knitting (322 words)

Once you've learned how to cast on knit and purl, you may have made your way through an entire skein and of yarn before you realized you had no idea how to stop. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's easy to get in a groove making rows, but eventually you're going to have to get just as good at binding off as you are knitting and purling. Binding off can be described in three simple steps.

Step One: once you've completed the last row, cast off as if you were going to continue the same pattern. Knit or Purl the first couple of stitches on this final row.

Step Two: You should now have two stitches on the right hand needle. Use the left needle to grab and pull the first stitch up and over the second sttitch and over at the tip of the right hand needle leaving you with one stitch, which is actually the second stitch on the right hand needle. Knit or purl the next sttitch and repeat until you are left with no stitches on the left-hand needle and one stitch on the right-hand.

Step Three: slip the last stitch off the right-hand needle and trim yarn leaving a couple of inches to weave back into the project. Slip this through the last loop and pull tight so the loop will not unravel. And finally, use a sewing needle or crochet hook to weave the loose end through several stitches in the project.

And that is actually all there is to binding off. In effect, you are using a stitch variation to lock the pattern into itself and then, as the saying goes, tying up your loose end. You can practice binding off and casting on by just knitting a few rows with some left over yarn that you have lying around.