Working a 3-Needle Bind-off Across w&t Short Rows

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The Hat I was kitting when I wrote the 3-Needle Bind-off tutorial was a sideways design, Lenina, and I had short rows to encounter whilst binding off. Short rows are not difficult to deal with when joining live stitches, and the method shown below works for Kitchener Stitch as well as the 3-Needle Bind-off.

German short rows are the easiest to deal with, as the double legged stitch is treated the same as any other stitch. With the w&t - wrap and turn - short row method there’s a little more to it, but it’s not diffiuclt.

The important thing to remember with w&t short rows is to be consistent throughout your work – it doesn't matter whether you knit into the back of them or not, as this is a personal choice and we all like to do them different ways. Interesting effects can be achieved by performing the short rows differently, so try and experiment a little. You don't have to try and make shaping in knitting invisible, because more often shaping won't be invisible, so it can be much more interesting to make a feature of the them.

1) Insert the right hand needle into the wrap to lift it.

2) Lift the wrap up onto the needle so that it sits next it's stitch.

3) If you worked the wraps in other areas of the pattern by knitting into them together through the backs of the loops, then you will need to lift both the wrap and it's stitch off the needle, twist them towards you and then place them back onto the holding needle ready to join them.

This method of twisting has exactly the same effect as knitting through the back of the loops.

You can also do this when grafting, and treat the wrap and it's stitch as one stitch. If you didn't knit into the backs of the loops when working the short rows then you don't need to perform this twist.

4) Now perform the next step as normal, and knit the wrap with it's stitch together with the stitch on the other needle. You'll need to do this for each short row wrap that appears during the bind-off.

Voila!

Support

As always, if you have a question about this technique or need some help with it, leave a comment below! I’m afraid I’m unable to offer help via email or private message but you’re welcome to post in our forums.

The photos in this post were updated on 29/1/2021.