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Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off / Knit Along Day 7

November 17, 2014 3 Comments

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

We’ve come to the end, my friends. This is the last tutorial day in the fall knit along. Since I know many of you are not quite at the finishing point, never fear! I’ve decided to extend the Lion Brand Yarn giveaway deadline through the end of the month to give everyone a fair chance (and Thanksgiving weekend if you’re in the U.S.) to finish your sweaters. Full and updated giveaway details are at the bottom of this post. :)

We left off last week with our sweaters all but complete, with just the underarms left to close up. To close the underarm gaps, we’re going to use something called a three needle bind off. And guess what? It’s really straightforward!

A bottom up knit sweater with attached sleeves | HandsOccupied.com

How to knit a three needle bind off

For this step, you’ll need three knitting needles (or at least 1 circular set and an additional straight needle or three straight needles, which don’t have to be double pointed). Start by turning your sweater inside out and transferring half of your underarm stitches from your scrap yarn to two needles (or one set of circulars).

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Holding the two needles in your non-dominant (left) hand, put your working needle through the first loop on each of the two needles, as shown. Essentially, you’re working two parallel rows of knitting simultaneously when you’re working a three needle bind off.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Draw the loop you’ve knit back through the two loops at once, and sweep the two loops off the ends of the lefthand needles.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Work one more set of two stitches, at which time you’ll have two loops on your right (working) needle.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied Just like you’re working a regular old bind off, pass the first loop you knit over the second, leaving the second on your working needle.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Continue binding off in this way (knitting one loop from each lefthand needle together, passing one loop over the other on the righthand needle, etc.) until you have just two loops left.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Pass the farthest loop over the other loop.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied When you’re done working your 3 needle bind off, draw the yarn’s tail through the single loop that’s left to secure.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Use the rest of your yarn’s tail to sew closed the holes on either end of your three needle bind off stitches, and weave in ends to finish. To see what a finished 3 needle bind off looks like, turn your sweater inside out and compare it the photo at the top of this post.

How to Knit a Three Needle Bind Off at Hands Occupied

Blocking

How to Block Knitting at Hands Occupied

When your ends are all weaved in, make sure to take the time to block your sweater. Blocking is great to help even out your stitches if they’re a little uneven and it helps with the fit too. As tedious as it can be, I always block my finished knitting, particularly if it’s something I’m going to wear. If you’ve never blocked your knitting before, you can take a look at my basic blocking tutorial.

Last chance for the Lion Brand giveaway!!

Since this is the last tutorial in this really fun (if I say so myself!) sweater knit along, we’re officially at last call on the Lion Brand Yarn giveaway. Lion Brand has been an amazing sponsor and source for support in this KAL, and I loved the chance to design with their yarn.

Fall Knit Along Prize Pack Provided by Lion Brand | Hands Occupied The giveaway includes skeins of Lion Brand’s Baby Alpaca yarn, their Angora Merino and Amazing. You can enter the giveaway in SO many ways. For every phase of the KAL you’ve completed, you get another entry. If you’re in the Ravelry group, you get an entry. You also get an entry whenever you post with #handsoccupiedkal. I feel like Oprah right now!!

And since I know some of you are still catching up on past days of the KAL I’ve decided to extend the KAL giveaway through the end of November. At midnight on 12/1/14, entries will close for the Lion Brand giveaway, but that gives you a couple more weeks to finish your sweaters and earn tons of chances to win the giveaway. As an added incentive to finish your sweaters by the end of the month, I’ve made the entry option for “OMG I FINISHED MY SWEATER” worth a whopping 5 entries, more than any other. Because hey, finishing an entire sweater is a pretty amazing accomplishment in my book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Remy Pullover knit along is brought to you by Lion Brand Yarns. Check out Lion Brand on social media: Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest. 

The Fall 2014 Knit Along: Knit the Remy Pullover at Hands Occupied

—

Other posts in this series:

  1. Announcing the fall knit along! The Remy Pullover
  2. How to do a long tail tubular cast on (optional tutorial for the cast on I like for this pattern)
  3. Do the math, get the fit / Fall Knit Along Day 1
  4. Knit Along Tips, Tricks & An Official Schedule
  5. Knit Along Day 2: Sleeve time!
  6. Fall KAL Day 3: The Other Sleeve
  7. How to attach sleeves / KAL Day 4
  8. How to knit a raglan decrease / KAL Day 5
  9. How to knit the collar / KAL Day 6
  10. All that’s left is blocking your sweater and remembering to enter the giveaway! I’ll announce the winner Tuesday, December 2. :D

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored, Knit Along, Knitting & Crochet Tagged With: bottom up sweater, fall2014kal, giveaway, handsoccupiedkal, kal, knit along, lion brand yarn, raglan sleeves, remy pullover, sweater collar, three needle bind off

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author, designer & creator specializing in yarn crafts like knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé. Her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now.

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Comments

  1. Heather

    November 18, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    Oooooooh! It’s Lion Brand’s fancy yarns! Now I hope I win even more!!! Better keep knitting to get more entries!

    Reply
  2. Iva

    December 19, 2018 at 6:24 am

    Dear Heidi,
    this is my first ever raglan and I managed the the decreases because it is super-simply explained with your pattern. Thank you!
    I know this is super old but I want you to know it is still in good use for us begginers!

    Reply
    • Heidi

      December 19, 2018 at 9:01 am

      Thanks so much, Iva! And congrats on your sweater! I’m working through my backlog of patterns to update and re-release them, so it’s awesome to know this one’s still working for folks. :)

      Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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Helping yarn crafters untangle various techniques on the internet since 2010
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Heidi Gustad 🧶 knitting & yarn crafts
It’s time for the monthly review and giveaway! T It’s time for the monthly review and giveaway! This go around, get to know two new sister yarns from @manosyarnsusa, Marla and Sami, and enter to win a skein of each to try for yourself. 
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What makes these yarns sisters is that, while dyed differently, they’re the same weight and come in intentionally coordinating color palettes. For my review, I opted for a sky-inspired combo of Sami in Natural and Marla in Nube. 🌧️ 
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Check out the full review & enter the giveaway at the link in my bio. 
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#handsoccupied #yarnreview #manosdeluruguay #knitting_inspire #crochet #yarngiveaway #knitters #yarn #crochetersofinstagram
If only knitting a whole project took 39 seconds… 😮‍💨 
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In this video, you can see how the Intarsia Flower Pillow pattern knits up - two flat panels, one with intarsia, both are blocked, and then they’re seamed. Find the pattern on @hi.ravelry & my website, just search Intarsia Flower Pillow. 🌸 
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P.S. I’m really smiling in this video while seaming the pillow, so I guess I’m proving last week’s claim that I truly enjoy that sometimes-dreaded task. 😆🫣
In knitting, a Left Lifted Increase (LLI) lets you In knitting, a Left Lifted Increase (LLI) lets you add a stitch in between two columns of stitches that leans to the left. Similar to an M1L, LLIs allow you to increase nearly invisibly.
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To learn more about lifted increases, including when to use them and how they differ from Make 1s, head to the 🔗 in my profle. 
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Have you ever used lifted increases? I used M1’s almost exclusively for a long time when I needed to inc between stitches, but when I designed the Intarsia Flower Pillow pattern, I needed something that would allow me to increase a lot near my cast on, and M1’s resulted in edge curling. The more you know! 🌈 
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Yarn: @lionbrandyarn Wool Ease from my Stash / Neddles: @boyeyarncrafts - Just remembered these are the needles I learned to knit on at age 8. 😂
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Last week I got to hang out with my family & helpe Last week I got to hang out with my family & helped babysit my red-headed niece and nephew. So here’s some plane knitting, and a couple pictures (shared with permission) of my babysitting adventures.
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Lessons learned: 1️⃣ Trying to knit around 2 toddlers, 2 cats & 2 large dogs is pretty hard. 2️⃣ I learned during water color time that pink and black make “colorful black.” 🩷🖤 3️⃣ Toddlers do NOT care about your rainbow sorting of their toys. 4️⃣ Toddlers are very good at finding mischief in a very short amount of time, what a surprise. 😂
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Weaving in ends & seaming with mattress stitch are Weaving in ends & seaming with mattress stitch are both so useful for garment knitting! But for me, weaving in ends can feel like a chore while the latter feels like I’ve successfully done magic. 🧙🏻‍♀️ Does anybody else run into this phenomenon? Are you the opposite? Any theories as to why they feel different? 
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In this video, I’m finishing my brand new Intarsia Flower Pillow. 🌸 I’m working with @universal_yarn Uni Merino & the pattern is available at the 🔗 in my b1o. 
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