Russian cast off : : A knitting tutorial

The Russian cast off (Russian bind off) is a looser, stretchier and more elegant way of casting off than the traditional method. It works particularly well as a finishing to ribbing, especially on a ribbed collar or a ribbed band (eg on a hat).

To start with, take your row of stitches (practice on a swatch first I think)




Knit the first one as you normally would when casting off



Now, insert the left needle in the back of the stitch you just knitted, you should have this sort of thing...



Now, take the tip of the right needle and insert it in the next stitch, as if to knit,



you should see a lovely cross formed with the stitches and the needle through both of them and out the back, like this



Now, just pass the yarn round the needle as usual for a knit stitch



Pull the point of the needle back through your cross, you should have a lovely stitch on your needle


Now pull that off the left needle, and start again


Put the left needle through the back of the stitch on the right


Right needle through next stitch to knit


Knit



Off



Keep going, it should look like this



and eventually, you have this



Here are a couple of examples of this stitch in real live action.....

The collar of the Drops Jacket



The band of the Astrum Beret



Simple, elegant and useful, give it a go.