How to Make a Simple Knitting Bind Off

When you’ve spent your time knitting an attractive scarf, blanket, or sweater, the last thing you want is to have your careful work unravel before your eyes. To prevent such a catastrophe, you’ll have to learn how to bind off your work. Fortunately, binding off is one of the simplest tasks you can learn for knitting. When you bind off, you simply take the stitches off the needle and secure them in a way that won’t allow them to unravel.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Sewing needle or crochet hook

Bind off With a Knit Stitch

1. Hold your knitting needles as normal, and knit two stitches of a new row.

2. Push the needle you’re holding in your left hand through the first stitch on the needle you have in your right hand.

3. Use the tip of the needle in your right hand to pull the first stitch over the second stitch on the needle held in your right hand.

4. Pull that first stitch right off the needle.

5. Make sure you are now left with only the second stitch on the needle in your right hand.

6. Repeat the knit and pull-off process with the stitches on the needle in your left hand. Continue until all of the stitches have been bound off.

7. Use scissors to snip the yarn, leaving a dangling string of about 4 inches long.

8. Use a sewing needle or crochet hook to weave the string through several stitches of your knitting project. This will ensure that your hard work won’t unravel.

Use a Simple Purl to Bind Off

9. Hold your finished knitting work in your left hand and an empty knitting needle in your right hand.

10. Purl two stitches on the needle.

11. Pull the first purled stitch over the second purled stitch.

12. Slip the first stitch off the needle entirely, making sure there is just one stitch left on the needle held in your right hand.

13. Continue to purl and slip your stitches off until you’ve completely bound off your project.

14. Snip the yarn, so that you have about 4 inches of yarn left over.

15. Weave the leftover yarn through several stitches on your project using a crochet hook or sewing needle.

Tips & Warnings

• If you find that your binding off is too tight, try using a needle a couple of sizes larger than the one you used for knitting. This will produce a looser bind of stitches.