Knit Basics: Bind-Off or Cast-Off
Binding Off / Casting Off
When you have finished your knitting, you will want to anchor the final stitches in place so that your knitting doesn't come undone. In the US, this is known as binding off and in the UK it's called casting off. There is a standard bind-off that is used in most circumstances that I will show you here, but you can also find a full range of different bind off types here, which are very useful in different, more specialised circumstances.
Bind Off / Cast Off Instructions:
- For the standard bind off, you will begin by working two stitches. These will be knit or purl as needed for the pattern.
- Then, you lift the second stitch on your right needle over the first.
- Then, you work one more stitch and again lift the second stitch over the first stitch.
- You just keep doing this until there is only a single stitch left.
- At that point, you cut your yarn and pull the 'tail' of the yarn you have just cut through the final stitch and tighten it up.
Check out some more tutorials for specific Bind Off / Cast Off techniques:
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