The Knitting Fiend

A reader emailed to ask if I’d ever demonstrated a bind-off for 1 x 1 rib using a tapestry needle. Not only had I never demonstrated this knitting technique, I’d never even tried it! Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t teach myself and then show you how to do it.

The bind off method is very elastic, and so often recommended when knitting toe up socks, as I am currently doing. So, I pulled two references off my shelf; each described how to work this bind off in slightly different ways. I tried both, blended them and came up with my own method, which I will illustrate presently.

First, a little Q & A.

A vocabulary minded knitter might ask, “What is this bind off called?”

To which I would answer, “Heck if I know!”

One of my references was “Mon Tricot”, published in French; direct translation of their term would be “extendable bind off” or more likely “stretchy bind off”. The other reference was written in English by Montse Stanley ; she called it “bind off for 1 x 1 ribbing.”

That’s pretty generic! Maybe this doesn’t have a name in English?

Oh well. It is quite stretchy; with practice it looks very nice and somewhat mysterious. It’s a lot more work than the other bind off I’ve shown for 1 x 1 ribbing which, interestingly enough, my Mon Tricot reference refers to as the French bind off. )

My instructions will assume your row begins with a knit stitch. If it does not, you can reorganize. So here’s

How to work the stretchy, mysterious, tapestry needle bind off for 1 x 1 ribbing

When you finish your final round (or row) of 1 x 1 ribbing, unwind a length of yarn that is approximately 3-4 times as long as the length of the edge to be bound off; break the yarn. Thread a tapestry needle with this yarn end.

Starting with a knit stitch, insert the tapestry needle purlwise through the first knit stitch on the left hand needle. The tip will emerge through the center of the stitch and poke out toward the front. (See left.) Pull the yarn through. Don’t drop the stitch off the needle.

(Don’t worry too much if you do pull off the stitch and drop it off the needle. Montse Stanley’s method has you drop stitches of the needle as soon as you’ve pulled the yarn up. If your eyes are better than mine, you may decide to drop the stitches after you pull the yarn through.)

Insert tip of tapestry needle knitwise through the first purl stitch on the right hand needle. Pull the yarn through. Don’t drop the stitch off the needle. (But, don’t worry too much if you do.)

You are now ready to begin the repetitive part.

1. Drop the knit stitch off needle; insert tapestry needle into dropped knit stitch front to back. Then, insert needle tip into next knit stitch as if to purl. Draw yarn through. (To see how the tip is inserted see above left. Normally, I’d be inserting into the first knit stitch on the right, which would be second stitch from the right. I accidently dropped the next purl stitch a little early; it won’t unravel because it’s already anchored. )
2. Drop purl stitch off needle. Hold the tapestry needle to the back of the work insert the tip into dropped purl stitch from back to front. Then, insert the tip into the next purl stitch going from the right to left as shown in the photo above right.¹
3. Repeat the previous two steps.

I screwed up a lot learning this. Eventaully, I made up a mantra to repeat, which prevented me from screwing up. I start by inserting the tip into the knit stitch front to back and repeat:

Front to back, purlwise . . . ; back to front, dig. . .

I pull on the yarn during the “. . . ” pauses.

Note that you need pull justenough to blend bind off into the stitches, pulling neither to tight nor too loose. This requires practice; you might want to practice with a contrast color yarn on a swatch.

Here’s a close up of the bind off. Here, the stitches in the final row worked in ribbing were fuschia; the white/orange yarn on the tapestry needle traveled traveled from back to front through the left leg of the right hand stitch (which will have been dropped off the sock needle). Then it was inserted purlwise, which made the yarn go front to back through the knit stitch still on the sock needle. The bind off looks exactly the same on the back.

Of course, you will eventually reach the final two stitches. If you are knitting back and forth, it is obvious that you just don’t do the second half of the procedure. After all, there will be no stitches to “insert the tapestry needle knitwise” etc.

However, if you are knitting in the round, it’s a bit more puzzling. You do want to do something with those first two stiches, and there are probably several things you can do. When I reached the last two stitches, I used a second DPN to pick up the very first two stitches in the round pretending they weren’t already partly bound off. Then, I finish step 1 of the repeated part by “inserting the tapestry needle purlwise” into that very first knit stitch. Then, I did a a similar thing for the purl stitch. This looked fine to me. So, give it a try.

After that, you’ll be done. Anchor the yarn. If this is a toe up sock, wear it!

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1. Yes, the photo is hard to decipher. This is a bit fiddly. You will need to take the tip past the knit stitch on the left needle, dig a around right hand leg of purl stitch. The needle tip should emerge through the center of this stitch. In the photo, I’ve dug around so the purl loop is on the tapestry needle. Strangely enough, you are trying to get the tip to travel in exactly the same path as when you inserted it knitwise in the first purl stitch. I just like to do this from the back, so you have to dig around!

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Filed in Sock knitting techniques.