When you are done knitting in the round, you must bind off your project (also called casting off). One of the easiest and most versatile bind offs is the basic bind off. The steps below demonstrate this technique with one circular needle used in the traditional method. The procedure is the same for the other circular knitting methods.
Place a stitch marker on your right-hand needle to indicate the end of the round. Then knit the first two stitches of the round as usual.
There are now two stitches on your right-hand needle to the left of the end-of-round marker.
Using the tip of your left-hand needle, lift the first stitch of the round on the right-hand needle up and over the second stitch and off the right-hand needle.
You have bound off one stitch, and one stitch remains on the right-hand needle to the left of the end-of-round marker.
Knit one more stitch, so that there are again two stitches on the right-hand needle to the left of the end-of-round marker. Then again lift the first stitch over the second and off the right-hand needle. Repeat until you reach the end of the round and one stitch remains on your right-hand needle.
If your pattern instructs you to bind off in pattern, instead of knitting each stitch before binding it off, just knit or purl it as necessary to continue the established stitch pattern.
Cut the yarn, leaving an eight-inch tail. Slip the final loop off the needle and pull this loop up until the yarn tail comes free and the loop no longer remains.
The bound-off stitches appear to be a series of overlapping Vs that run horizontally along the edge of your work.
Thread the yarn tail onto a seaming needle. Insert the seaming needle from front to back under both legs of the V that constitutes the first bound-off stitch of the round. Pull the needle through and snug up this stitch.
Take care not to pull it so tight that you distort the fabric.
Insert the seaming needle down into the middle of the last bound-off stitch (into the center of the V) and then back toward the center of the project.
Pull the needle through and snug up the yarn so that this connector stitch is the same size as the surrounding bound-off stitches.
Weave in the yarn tail on the wrong side of the fabric as usual.
For a looser bound-off edge, work the bind off using a needle that is one or two sizes larger than the needle you used for your project.
