There is one thing about the regular bind-off method that is quite annoying. It doesn’t form neat corners. The right corner has a bit of a slope, while the left corner is usually too sharp and tends to point upwards.
While we know several ways to tame the left corner of the bind-off edge (some of those ways are described over here), we often don’t pay attention to the less-than-perfect corner formed when we bind off the first stitch.
We shouldn’t ignore this little imperfection. It is amazingly easy to fix, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t do it when we bind off stitches of scarves, blankets, and other projects that benefit from clean right-angled corners.
Let’s see how we can turn a sloped right corner into a perfectly right-angled one.
Remember I told you this issue is amazingly easy to fix. I wasn’t kidding. All we need to do is to purl the first stitch of the bind-off row.
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When you are ready to bind off stitches, purl the first stitch. Do it no matter whether this stitch is a knit or a purl, or whether you bind off all stitches as knits or you bind them off in pattern. Purl the first stitch.
Then work the next stitch. Knit it if you bind off all stitches as knits, or if you bind off stitches in pattern and this stitch is a knit.
Insert the tip of the left needle into the purled stitch (the second stitch on the right needle), and pass this stitch over the other stitch and off the needle.
Continue to bind off stitches. After you bind off several stitches, you will see that instead of forming a slope, the right corner of the bind-off edge looks like a perfectly shaped right angle.
Such a big improvement, all thanks to a different way we work the first stitch of the bind-off row.
SAVE IT FOR LATER
This and 26 other in-depth tutorials are part of Knitting Collection #9.
