You’ve knit your way through a beautiful piece of knitting and now you want to get it off of your needles. This is where learning how to cast off (or bind off) comes in!

 

This method of casting off is called a Standard Cast-Off and is great for beginners! There are other kinds of cast-off methods that you can use depending on what you’re knitting, but we’ll start with the basics for now.

 

Things you’ll need:

 

  • Yarn of choice

  • Needles of choice

  • Knit piece ready to be taken off the needles

 

Notes:

 

  • Don’t pull too hard on your stitches when you knit them, or your cast-off will look super tight!

  • In Step 3, feel free to use your fingers if you’re having trouble moving stitches over other stitches.

Prep Step!

Have a knitted piece ready to come off of your needles.

 

If you are practicing this cast-off method, feel free to knit a few rows of the Knit Stitch in preparation for some cast-off practice.

 

Step 1

K2 (aka: Knit the first 2 stitches).

 

Don’t know the Knit Stitch? Follow the Knit Stitch tutorial!

 

Step 2

Insert your active needle, from left to right, into the first knitted stitch on the other needle. 

 

Once we grab this stitch, we’re going to get rid of it in the next step!

 

Step 3

Take first knit stitch and pull it over the second knit stitch on your right needle, and then off of the needle completely.

 

If you have any trouble pulling one stitch over the other, don’t be afraid to use your fingers to hold down a stitch!

 

Step 4

K1 (Knit 1 stitch).

 

NOTE: This step is where the repetition comes in! You won’t ever have more than 2 stitches held on your right needle!

 

Step 5

REPEAT steps 2 to 4 until end of work is reached!

 

Finish!

Once you’ve gotten to the last stitch, cut your yarn and pull the stitch through. You should now have a freed and finished piece of knitting!!!

 

Another good thing to know about this cast-on is that it can be applied to both the Knit Stitch and the Purl stitch. In other words, instead of knitting your stitches for the last row, you can purl them all, and even alternate stitches depending on your knit pattern!

 

Amazing job! Know you’ve got yourself a beautiful piece of knitting made with your own two hands! If you’ve gotten this far into the Knitting 101 tutorial, you’ve official learned the very basics of knitting. Congratulations! You are on your way to creating amazing things. 🙂

 

Dont know what to knit yet?

Try learning one of these cool knit stitches!