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How to Work a Three-Needle Bind Off

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How to work a three-needle bind off.
The three-needle bind off is a great knitting technique to have in your aresenal. It’s used when you have an even number of stitches that need to be seamed together, and is kind of like binding off and sewing the seam at the same time.

It’s actually really easy to do, just remember that you need to have your stitches evenly divided on two double-pointed needles or two ends of a circular needle. You’ll also probably want to work this from the wrong side because the seam is less prominent that way.

Here’s a quick video showing how to do it. I used a circular needle so you could see how that would work. This is my in the round version of the pussycat hat.

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How do you use the three-needle bind off? I’d love to hear your suggestions and tips.

Read more: Three-needle bind off tips

Comments

  1. I had never seen this before. Even the whisper of a 3 needle anything makes me run, screaming. After watching the video, I think this might be something very handy for me though. Thanks Sarah!

Have you read?

Book Review: Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond

When I discovered Kate Atherley’s book Circular Knitting for Beginners and Beyond, I wasn’t sure there was enough to say about circular knitting to fill a book. It’s a pretty short book (144 pages) and includes 10 patterns to practice working in the round on small projects, and it provides a decent introduction to the various ways of working in the round. 

The book covers using double pointed knitting needles, flexible double points and circular knitting needles with cables. It talks about working using the full circumference of a circular needle and various ways to work smaller circumference projects, such as using DPNs, magic loop and knitting with two circular knitting needles. 

In addition there’s a discussion of preventing problems like twists and ladders, swatching in the round without actually swatching in the round, grafting, blocking and weaving in ends. 

More specialized techniques likes knitting from the center out, stranded colorwork, helical knitting and jogless stripes are also explored, as well as working pieces like socks or mitts two at a time. 

There’s also some information about seamless sweaters, including the different sweater designs that can be worked seamlessly (and why you might want seams in your sweaters) and how they are worked from the top down or the bottom up. 

There are 10 patterns in the book, including a basic stockinette stitch cowl and one with a deliberate twist, wrist warmers, mitts and a pair of colorwork mittens, a hat worked in a solid color or in helical stripes, toe up and top down socks and a beret. It would have been nice to have a basic sweater pattern, too, since the book does talk about working larger garments with circular needles, but it’s still a nice collection of basic patterns worked in the round. 

If you’re already comfortable working in the round in different ways, I’m not sure there’s much for you to learn in this book, but it is a good reference for people learning circular knitting or who maybe haven’t tried all the techniques yet or need skill building projects to try. 

About the book: 144 pages, paperback, 10 patterns. Published 2026 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.