How to Cast Off for a Leg Opening in Knitting
When making a dog sweater or pair of pants or diaper soaker for a small child, you must cast off some of your stitches at the leg holes. There are many ways to cast off stitches while knitting, but the key is to cast off loosely. There are two primary ways: Decrease bind-off and the suspended bind-off. Either one will resemble the traditional bind off method while maintaining the knitting's ability to stretch as it passes over the leg of the wearer.
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Instructions
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Decrease Bind-Off
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1
Knit the first two stitches on your left-hand needle together through the back loop. Push your right-hand needle through the loops of both stitches, placing it to the back of your left hand needle in the loops themselves. Wrap the yarn around your right-hand needle and pull through, dropping both stitches off your left-hand needle and leaving one stitch on the right.
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2
Slide the stitch on your right-hand needle back onto your left-hand needle. Knit it and the next stitch on your left-hand needle together through the back loop as before, passing the new stitch back to the left-hand needle again.
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3
Repeat along the line of stitches to be cast off until you have only one stitch left on your left-hand needle. Cut your working yarn -- the yarn leading to the skein -- to about 4 inches. Remove the needle from the stitch and pass the tail of working yarn through the loop of the stitch, pulling it tight to knot the yarn. Thread the tail onto an embroidery needle and weave it through the stitches of your project.
Suspended Bind-Off
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4
Knit the first two stitches on your left-hand needle. Slide the tip of your left needle under the first stitch and pass it over the second, but leave the first stitch on your left-hand needle and the second -- the one you passed the first stitch over -- on the right.
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5
Bring the right-hand needle around to the side of the work facing you and knit the third stitch -- now the second stitch on your left-hand needle -- and knit it. Slip these two stitches from your left-hand needle.
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6
Repeat the process from the beginning until you have only one stitch left on your needle. Cut the working yarn to about 4 inches. Pass it through the loop of the stitch and cinch it down to complete the bind off. Thread the yarn tail through an embroidery needle and weave it through the stitches of your project to secure it.
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Tips & Warnings
You can use either cast off method with either knit or purl stitches if you are casting off a ribbed section of work.
References
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images
