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An Easy Way to Make Your Bind Off Neater

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How to make the end of your bind off neater.I’m sure you’ve noticed how the very last stitch of binding off can look a little messy. It’s usually bigger than the others and you can easily tell which end is the end of the bind off for that very reason.

Yarn Sub mentions the reason for this extra big loop is because there’s extra yarn in that stitch (and every stitch of a bind off, actually), and that to neaten it up you need to get rid of or cover up that extra yarn.

The way the post explains of capturing the extra yarn is to push the loop down, then pull on the yarn end until the elongated stitch straightens out.

There are lots of different methods for dealing with this problem. I often knit the last stitch together with the stitch before it instead of doing a traditional bind off on that stitch, which also helps. If you have a different method for dealing with an ugly end to your bind off (or if you’ve tried this one) I’d love to hear about it.

[Photo via Yarn Sub.]

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Comments

  2. The method I use, and it never fails, is when I get to the last stitch I put my right-hand needle into the last stitch from the last row and then into the last bind off stitch, knit these two together and the pass the second last stitch over the last and then finish as above. I never get a dog ear.

Have you read?

A Whimsical Sock Pattern to Blow Your Mind

You probably know by now if you’re a regular reader (and if you’re not, welcome!) that I love a knitting pattern that’s a little silly or a little different from the usual. Classic patterns are great, too, but sometimes you just want to make something with a bit of whimsy. And when it’s super functional, too, that’s even better.

That’s the case with the Bananen-Socken pattern from Susanne Shahin. These banana socks are one of those patterns no one seems to be totally sure where it came from, and this free pattern on Ravelry explains how she makes them based on how she learned it.

It’s a sock that’s curved and when not on a foot it looks rather like a banana. There’s no heel, and you can use whatever number of stitches you need to make it fit your foot. If you’ve knit enough socks to know how many stitches you like you can just use that number, or the pattern notes include sizing charts to help. (It needs to be multiples of 2 for the ribbing.)

After working a traditional cuff, the body is made with ribbing on the back and welts (or what the pattern calls horizontal ribbing) on the front, which is what gives it the curved shape. There’s no heel, but there is toe shaping, but for the leg and the foot you just keep working the same pattern as long as you like.

I’m a little skeptical about how these socks will feel with ribbing on the bottom of the foot, but I’m definitely intrigued and will probably give them a try. 

The pattern notes are available on Ravelry in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. If you head to the pattern page you can see a photo of what it looks like on a foot, and it just looks like a normal sock.

Have you ever knit banana socks or do you want to now? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

[Photo: Susanne Shahin]