Searching for information on how to do a stretchy bind off?
Have you ever knitted a garment but then struggled to get it over your head because the neck edging cast off was too tight and inelastic? This can also happen with the cuffs of socks when they have been made toe upwards.
In this post, you will learn how to do a stretchy bind-off in knitting to avoid this very problem. Using this method your cast-off edging will be nice and elastic so that you can easily get the garment on and off without any hassle.
There are other ways to make a stretchy cast-off but this is thought to be the easier method.
This particular skill is a technique often called Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy cast off method.
Watch the video below to see how it is done.
You can practise this method to get the hang of it by first using some stash yarn that you already have at home.
Watch the video first pausing it at each step so that you can do what it’s showing you. To help you here are some instructions.
The whole idea and the way this method works is because you create an extra stitch by making a yarn over, then that is cast off by pulling it over in the normal way. That extra stitch gives the cast off more elastic stretch.
- For a first stitch that is a knit stitch, first, make a yarn over by taking the yarn round the right hand needle in the opposite way we normally do a yarn over. Then knit the next stitch. This means you will have 2 stitches on the needle – the yarn over one, and the one from the knit stitch. Now pull the yarn over the stitch over the one you just made from the knit stitch.
- Now do a normal yarn over, then do the purl stitch ( if you’re doing a 1 by 1 rib ) At this stage you will have 3 stitches on the needle.
- Now put the left hand needle into both of the first 2 stitches and pull it over the last stitch.
- You will now be left with one stitch on the right-hand needle.
- Repeat the steps to cast off all the stitches.
So that is how you do a really elastic cast-off that will guarantee you do not have any nasty and embarrassing surprises when something you’ve knitted cannot be worn as it’s too tight.
