Link: Knitting
How to measure cast-on tail
Instead of guessing or wrapping around needles/fingers to estimate tail length:
- Make a slip knot and cast on ~10 stitches
- Measure how much tail that used, then multiply out for your full stitch count (plus a bit extra for weaving in / seaming).
Source: Patty Lyon’s Knitting Bag of Tricks, p68 “Long-Tail Cast-On”
Sloped cast-on instead of stairsteps (for dolman sleeves)
Result: a smooth, easy-to-seam sloped edge instead of stairsteps.
Used when a pattern has you cast on stitches at the start of several rows in a row (e.g. cast on 5 sts at beg of next 6 rows), which normally leaves stairsteps to seam.
Cast on the first RS/WS pair as usual. Then for every cast-on after that:
- Work across the row until 1 stitch remains on the left needle.
- Turn your work and slip that last unworked stitch from the right needle back to the left needle.
- Cast on your next set of stitches by inserting the needle between the last worked stitch and that slipped stitch (instead of at the very edge).
End your very last knit and purl cast-ons with the neat cable cast-on finish above.
Source: Patty Lyon’s Knitting Bag of Tricks, p166 “Sloped Cast-On”
Sloped bind-off (for shoulders)
Result: The slipped stitch bridges the stairstep, giving a smooth diagonal edge that’s much easier to seam.
Problem: Standard shoulder bind-offs (e.g. BO 5 sts at beg of next 4 rows) leave a stairstep edge that’s annoying to seam.
Bind off your first set of shoulder stitches as usual (RS row), work to end, turn, bind off WS row as usual. Then for every bind-off after that:
- Work across the row until 1 stitch remains on the left needle.
- Turn your work and slip that stitch from the left needle to the right needle.
- Pass the previous row’s unworked stitch over this slipped stitch - this counts as your first bound-off stitch.
- Continue the rest of the bind-off as written.
Repeat until all shoulder stitches are bound off.
Source: Patty Lyon’s Knitting Bag of Tricks, p164-165 “Shoulder Shaping: The Sloped Bind-Off”
Avoid a too-tight bind-off
Before passing the stitch over, pivot the right needles apart from the left, making it taller. Then pivot the left needle around to pass the first stitch over as usual.
Source: Patty Lyon’s Knitting Bag of Tricks, p173 “The Too-Tight Bind-Off”
Bind-off jog fix (working in the round)
Result: a seamless, jog-free bind-off edge in the round.
Problem: In the round, the first and last bound-off stitches don’t line up (like the “slinky” jog you get in stripes), because the first BO stitch sits one round below the last.
- Remove your end-of-round marker and slip the first stitch of the round purlwise from left to right needle. This becomes your new last stitch to bind off.
- Bind off as normal all the way around.
- When you bind off that final (slipped) stitch, you’ve now connected the last stitch of the round to the first - cut the yarn and pull the tail through.
- To close the small gap left in the “braid”: thread the tail on a tapestry needle, go under the legs of the first bind-off V, then back through the heart of that same V, and weave in.
Source: Patty Lyon’s Knitting Bag of Tricks, p156-157 “End in the Round: Smooth that Slinky”