One of the things I hate ever since is to feel trapped in my clothes. And I’m not even close to be over it!
The great thing when you’re creating your own clothes is to be able to tackle this kind of trouble. With proper measurements and accurate techniques, you don’t have to worry anymore.
Ribbing is a way to get stretchy fabric in knitting. But what’s the point to have a stretchy fabric if your bind-off is not. The classic bind-off is definitively NOT extensible. It fooled me once or twice and believe me, getting your head through a too-small-and-not-extensible neck is not funny, at all!
Luckily for us (and my glasses, which flew quite well that day), there’s a way to deal with this. It has been published in Knitty a few years ago and is called Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off
Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off
The secret to get a stretchy bind-off is not that secret: you need to add some yarn length to add some flexibility in the stitches. One way to do it is to add a yarn-over between the stitches.
Binding-off knit and purl stitches is performed a bit differently. Scroll down to find out how.
How to Bind-Off Knit Stitches
- Wrap the yarn over the needles from back to front (opposite way as usual).
- Knit the next stitch.
- Pass the two first stitches on the needle over the third one : we’re binding-off the first stitch and the yarn over.
How to Bind-Off Purl Stitches
- Wrap the yarn over the needle from front to back (as usual). The yarn is behind your work, bring in back in the front UNDER the right needle.
- Purl the next stitch.
- Pass the two first stitches on the needle over the third one : we’re binding-off the first stitch and the yarn over.
What about the first stitch?
Nothing fancy. Work it as a usual knit or purl stitch depending on its “flavour”. You’ll only have the yarn-over to pass over the second stitch as you don’t have a “previous stitch”. On a knit stitch, it goes as follows :
Simple, efficient and quick : an epic win combo!
Nothing’s better than a picture to prove a point
Socks, sweaters, I’m a huge fan of this one!
Quatre de carreau socks.
What’s your preferred stretchy bind-off?
