How to Cast Off Knitting Stitches

Now that your knitting project is finished, you're going to need to cast off knitting stitches to finish up and it's quite simple too.

Binding off is a way to take the live stitches off your needle, create a nice finished edge and stops the stitches from unraveling.  

As you may already know cast off and bind off both mean the same thing which is safely and securely taking the live stitches off the needle.

And you know what casting off knitting stitches means right?

It's almost time to start a brand new knitting project. You know the one; the one you were thinking about when you were finishing knitting this project. Haha

It never fails, when I'm getting close to the knitting finishing line you can bet I'm already thinking about my next knitting adventure. 

One important note:  The most important thing to remember when you cast off knitting is to cast off very loosely. And it's something I'm not very good at doing myself. I'm a tight knitter.  

If you bind off too tightly you'll find that your knitting will kind of pucker and it won't really drape very well. So try to keep the stitches a little looser than the regular tension you use when you're just normally knitting. 

I explain more about this on my bind off knitting tips page so you may want to take a look there too. It's something I need to practice more myself.

 Cast off Knitting Instructions

Step 2:  Push left needle through the first stitch you knit on the right needle 

Step 3:  Lift the first stitch over the second stitch kind of like you're leap frogging.

Step 4:  Then just let the stitch fall.

Knit one more stitch and repeat steps 2 - 4 until you have one stitch left.

Then continue on with my instructions below to finish knitting your project

Leave about six inches and cut the yarn. Bring yarn right through the loop 

Yarn is right through the loop

Then just pull it snug 

And you're all done, well there's still the weaving in the ends of course but it's always a good feeling to finish a knitting project.  

Here are two videos demonstrating the casting off technique I just showed you. One is the English knitting method and the other is Continental. 

Cast off Knitting Video - English Style

Cast Off Knitting Video - Continental Style

Pretty simple right? Maybe it's time for a cup of tea.  Enjoy!