Hi there! I’m brand new to this forum. I just finished a couple of projects (a pair of arm warmers, and a scarf) and I’m having trouble with the very last stitch in casting off. I look at YouTube videos of how to cast off.
The second technique always leaves me with an edge that protrudes out and is very noticeable (I tend to hide it by attaching tassels). The first technique just comes undone and I have to sew it back together so that the garment doesn’t unravel.
Is there something I’m doing wrong? Is there a technique that you could recommend that will not come apart? Any help would be great!
The last stitch is tricky. I’ve been experimenting with a method I use for binding off in the round where the last st is a row above the first stitch. For a flat piece, I BO the last one as usual, then insert my needle in the stitch below it and pick up a stitch from there to BO as a the last one. That seems to help the corner from looking misshapen or flaring out.
I do something similar to suzeeq but pick up the left leg of the st below the last one and knit it tog with the last st so there’s tension in the last loop.
Another option is to work until there’s one st on left ndl, but two on right. Move all to right and lift right-most st over two to its left. (one over two)
those videos show the same technique, however one uses the needle to pull the tail yarn through, and the other uses her fingers. That will leave a little ‘ear’ or flare at the corner. I like to use the trick that Suzeeq described (I actually got the idea from her post on another thread).
Thanks for the tips, guys! I’m still trying to get my head around the technique suzeeq described, but I’m practicing on spare yarn and making little squares.
There isn’t one that I know of, though you could search YouTube; there’s all kinds of knitting videos there. Let me try to explain…
You’ve cast off all the stitches and have just the last loop which would be the one you normally fasten off. Instead, insert the right needle into the middle of the very last stitch that you bound off, wrap your yarn around the needle and pull through (picking up a stitch). Now you have 2 sts on the right needle, bind off as usual and the picked up stitch is now the last loop that you fasten off.
Oooh, okay, that clears it up a lot. I’m like SBG, I need to see it in order to understand. When I got to the last loop (after picking up a stitch), I pulled the loop to make it a bit bigger, then cut the yarn so it had a tail, then pulled the tail through the loop to make a knot and tightened it as much as I could. Was that what I was supposed to do?