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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?

Learn a Flower Bobble Technique to Knit a Fun Shawl

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier. 

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project. 

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible. 

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge. 

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects. 

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy. 

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project. 

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Xandy Peters]