Not Quite The End

I’m going to show you how to get those beautiful stitches off that needle, and tell you a bit about knitting bind off methods so you can go ahead and brag about how awesome you are.  For real.  Knitting is easy once you get the hang of it, and if you’ve made it this far, you’ve been able to build your foundation from our how to cast on tutorial, and wasn’t that fun?  Once you got going it was easy peasy, right?  Well, it was easy enough for you to stick around and try the knit stitch.. and that right there is a success in my book.  And now hold on.. if you’ve made it this far, than you have likely also nailed the purl stitch and that is the trickiest part of knitting.  So give yourselves a great big pat on the back and then I want you to do two things, ready?  Take a photo of your project, and brag about it!  Post it to our Facebook Page and tag Nemcsok Farms so I don’t miss it AND share it on instagram with the hashtag #nemcsokfarmsknitters so I can find it, and press the little heart button and stuff, and congratulate you on your hard work!

And while Binding Off your stitches, is the last fundamental of knitting, it is not what you call finishing – so I just wanted to clear up any confusion there.  Finishing refers to when you weave in the ends of your yarn, and tidy up any strays from joining yarns throughout the project and sewing up any seams and well, you get the idea.  

Knitting Bind Off Methods

So, let’s get to it.  The first time you set out to bind off your stitches, you’re going to do it simply by using the knit stitch over and over again.  There’s a bit more to it, but just so you know, it’s really really easy.  As you start to knit more and more, you will come eventually want to try what is called binding off in pattern.  This simply means that you will use the knit stitch to bind off the old knit stitches and you will use the purl stitch to bind off the old purl stitches.  But we can totally get to that some other time.  Binding off with a knit stitch is perfectly fine and acceptable and I highly recommend it.  Ready?

How to Bind Off

1. Knit two stitches
2. Insert the left needle into the first stitch you knitted in step 1.
3. With the left needle, bring the first stitch you knitted over the second stitch and off the needle.
4. Knit the next stitch on the left needle, and repeat steps two and three.
5. Repeat these steps, knitting one from the left needle, and slipping the first stitch off the right needle over the second stitch. 
6. When you have one stitch left on the right needle, cut your yarn, leaving a long end, and bring it up through the last stitch.

Any questions?

You’ve Got This

Be sure to check out what to put in your Knit Kit for beginners, and soon I think we’ll all be ready for the next level. What knitting tutorial would you like to see next?