Finishing a knitting project for the first time can be exciting as well as daunting but don’t worry, with this simple guide you’ll be able to cast off your knitting with ease in no time. You’ll need a little extra yarn, your knitting needles, a darning needle and a pair of scissors.
Tips for casting off
Keep the tension loose as you work through your stitches. If you pull too tightly, the edge can become difficult to stretch when the project is finished. You can switch to a larger needle for this stage of the project if your work is prone to tight stitching. Practise on small swatches of knitting until you become confident casting off. It can be easy to miss a stitch during this process, so take your time and count your stitches. The confidence from a few trial runs will really help before trying it on your first project.
Projects to practice casting off
Something like this wool paper chain project is a fun project to practice casting off in small doses and you may wish to try a beginner macrame kit too: https://www.woolcouturecompany.com/collections/macrame-kits.
If you want to use your own swatches to create something similar, this page from Wikihow covers the basic sewing methods for knit projects. Master these and you should be good to go!
How to cast off
The same method can be used to cast off all types of knitting. This basic cast off is perfect for beginners and is compatible with most stitches.
1. Knit two stitches following the pattern you used to create the piece of knitting
2. Slip the left hand needle underneath the lower stitch on the right hand needle
3. Bring the lower stitch over the top stitch and off the needle
4. Knit a new stitch onto the right needle and repeat steps 2 and 3
5. Repeat the above process until there is only one stitch left on the left hand needle
6. Cut the yarn leaving a trail of roughly 10cm in length
7. Slip the last stitch off the needle and pull on the yarn until it’s tight
8. Use the darning needle to darn the end of the yarn into the edge of the work to hide and protect it
As you can see, it’s a very simple process. Take your time the first few times you cast off and you’ll master it very quickly
