Category:
Bind-Offs
Video: Edging Bind-Off
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Characteristics: recommended
Difficulty: Intermediate
The edging bind-off is an easy way to add a lace, cable, or decorative border pattern to the edge of your work while simultaneously binding off your knitting.
Instructions
To do this bind-off with any edge you desire, cast on the # of sts in your edge pattern in place of the 4 sts shown in the instructions below.
- Setup: CO 4 with Knitted Cast-On.
- K1. Do not drop st off L needle.
- Place new st back on L needle. Repeat steps 2-3 for as many sts as you need for your pattern.
- Work next RS row of your edge pattern across sts.
- K2tog tbl.
- Turn.
- Sl 1.
- P across.
- Repeat steps 4-8 across.
- BO using the Standard Bind-Off.
Tips
- You can choose to p2tog across the gap if it makes more sense for your pattern. P2tog across the gap to let the “seam” recede invisibly into the background, like for the cable edging in the photo. K2tog across the gap if you want a visible chain of stitches showing on the RS between the knitted work and the patterned edge.
- Tip #2: Instead of turning and working across the wrong side of the edging, I recommend that you try purling backwards. That makes this bind-off go even faster, as I demonstrate in the video.
Edging Bind-Off - Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
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Animated GIF: Edging Bind-Off
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More Information
If you have a shawl-collared or a kimono-style sweater and you want to add a five-stitch lace pattern to it the edge, this is a very easy way to do so without knitting a strip of lace and then sewing it onto the edge (which would be slow and also bulky where you had to seam it).
This is the technique used to add the beautiful leaf border to the popular Cedar Leaf Shawlette.
The way that this bind-off works is that you choose an edging pattern from a lace, cable, or stitch-pattern resource, like one of Barbara Walker’s Treasuries of Knitting Patterns.
You then cast on the number of stitches required for the edge pattern and work the first row of the pattern. When you get to the edge where the border stitches meet the work to be bound off, you either p2tog or k2tog across the gap and then turn and work back across the edge.
My Opinion
I really suggest that you try this bind-off because it’s not as hard as you think.
