Stretchy bind-off

For the last three of my finished sweaters, I talked about using my new favorite stretchy bind-off wherein I do the knit stitches as Kf&b, pass the first stitch over the second, then pass the last bound-off stitch over that one. I thought I would ramble on a bit more about this bind-off and show some photos of swatches.

I'm mainly a sweater knitter, and a lot of sweaters use the K2 P2 ribbing to finish necklines, armholes, sleeve openings, and front bands. I like the K2 P2 ribbing, but I was always trying to get the perfect tension while binding off. Usually I end up using a needle size that is 2 sizes larger but that's not always the best tension because it depends upon the actual needle sizes. Also, I don't really like the look of looser stitches on the bind-off.

I tried the popular Jenny's super stretchy bind-off, but I don't like the big bump caused by the yarnover, and I found it too stretchy for ribbed necklines and such, since they don't need to stretch as much as socks do. Here's a swatch of the bind-off for just knit stitches, and you can see the bumps at the top.

I knew that I needed to add more yarn to the bind-off row to give it stretchiness, so I decided to just try doing a Kf&b, because that almost doubles the yarn length. It does have a thicker look on that last bind-off row, but it's not that bad, and it stretches about the same as Jenny's bind-off if I do it on every stitch.

So then I decided to try it with every other stitch, and I found that the stretchiness is just about right. The stitches with the Kf&b don't look that different from the stitches with a K only. I used a cable cast-on for the swatch, and this stretches about the same as the cast-on.

So, for K2 P2, I do Kf&b for just the knit stitches when binding off, and I've found that it always gives me just the right amount of stretch. It does not look that different from a normal bind-off in ribbing.

FO: Creature Comforts Cardi

I just love this cardigan. It's the Creature Comforts Cardi, and the yarn is Fibranatura Mermaid. It sort of feels like wearing a Snuggie backwards. The Other Half says it looks very après-ski. I made my sleeves about 12 inches in circumference, and the sweater is just under 30 inches long. The center panel takes a little concentration but other than that, it's really good mindless knitting. You just knit a rectangle and sew up a couple of seams to form the sleeve holes.

I bound off the ribbing using my own variation of a stretchy bind-off. For the knit stitches, I Kf&b, passed the first stitch over the second, then passed the last bound off stitch over that one. The purl stitches were bound off as usual.

It's one of those garments that looks more interesting in the back. I have more of this yarn in a rust color. I might make another one with some other kind of back panel pattern.

FO: A copycat sweater

This sweater has a stitch pattern that is a copy of something I saw in a local boutique window. The original sweater had some elbow length sleeves and was looser and more cropped. It hasn't been on display for quite a while, but I think I got the stitch pattern right. In fact, I gave it more definition by knitting and purling through the back loop for one of the stitches. My yarn is Araucania Ulmo, which is 100% cotton. The yarn is a bit splitty, so I felt like I was slogging through it towards the end. I'm happy with end result though.

Here's a close-up of the stitch pattern. It causes quite a bit of biasing, so it would probably not be good knitted in the round. Breaking it up with the garter stitch sections also helped cut down on the biasing.

The stitch pattern is a multiple of three, and I put one selvedge stitch at each end. Here it is:

RS: p2tog, yo, k1 tbl
WS: p1 tbl, p1, k1

For the k2 p2 ribbing on the armholes and neckline, I did the same semi-stretchy bind off as I did on my last sweater. For each knit stitch in the bind-off, I did a kf&b, passed the first stitch over the 2nd, then passed the last bound-off stitch over that. I used the same needle size and I find that it gives just the right amount of stretchiness.

FO: One-seam shrug and a stretchier bind-off

This is the One-seam shrug from the Spring 2012 knit.wear issue. I wanted to knit this the minute I saw it in the magazine because of its unusual construction. It is knit as a rectangle and the horizontal back seam is made by a 3-needle bind-off. One short seam is sewn down the center back. (It was hard for me to visualize this until I saw one of the other finished ones on ravelry) I liked the pattern, but I didn't want to use a bulky yarn and I didn't want such an open weave, so I changed the stitch pattern and used Malabrigo worsted for a finer gauge. I used one of my favorite simple stitch patterns: K2, yo, K2tog on every row, with one K selvedge at each end. I love the result. Mine came out slightly smaller than the smallest size, but it's still quite roomy. It's very cozy but not too warm and the collar stays folded over and covers the back of the neck very well.

I want to share my method for doing stretchier bind-offs on this shrug. There are actually two methods, but they are variations on the same theme. I wanted a stretchier bind-off for the arm holes, which are bound off as knit stitches. For every other stitch, I did a knit through the front and back of the stitch. I would then slip the first stitch over the second one, then slip the stitch from the previous bind-off over that stitch. This sort of increases the the stitch count by 50% on the bind-off row only. I used the same needle size and tension for the bind-off. The horizontal back seam is done with a 3-needle bind-off, which normally results in a tight tension. It's one of the reasons I love it for shoulder seams because it allows the seam to remain firm and not stretch as I wear the sweater. In this case I wanted a stretchy seam because it sits across my back. I ended up doing the Kf&b on every stitch of the bind-off. It's more fiddly to do because of the 3-needle thing. I put the stitch from the front needle onto the back needle, then knit the two stitches together in the front and back and do the same slipping of stitches as I described above. The back is perfectly stretchy.