Curved edge bind off

The shaped edge of the pattern we did for the little baby socks edging was achieved by a combination of extra increases and bound off stitches.

• There were extra yarn over increases on rows 1, 3 and 5 which widened the edging.
• Then the edging narrowed on row 6 to its original cast on stitch count by binding off stitches.

This is an approach that is common to many lace edging patterns, and we are going to see it come up in several of our next projects as well.

When the design calls for creating a scalloped edge (such as on the baby socks edging) rather than a pointy one, it is useful to point out the little trick to getting a nice curved edge rather than a jagged point where the bound off row begins.

Bind Off (for curved edge) – slip 1 stitch purlwise, * k1, pass previous stitch over; repeat from *

The slip 1 is the important thing in this bind off. It results in the beginning of the bound off row to curve rather than be pointy.

The rest of the instructions is just a standard simple bind off. Each repeat between the asterisks will bind off one stitch (i.e. will reduce the stitch count of the row by one).

You can prove this to yourself by knitting the first stitch of the row rather than slipping. Then proceed with your bind off. Even though the look will differ only slightly, it is subtle touches like this that can help make your knitting extra special.