Picot Cast Off Tutorial
If you’ve ever thought a plain edging needed a little extra something, then a picot cast off (or bind off if you are from across the pond) might be just the thing. It’s a breeze to knit and you can easily add it to a project you’re knitting. You can do this without the need for a maths too as it doesn’t really matter how may stitches you have to cast off, and will work for an even or odd number.
Picot cast off edging
Garden Song Cushion with picot cast off
picot cast off on gradient shawl by Donna Jones
I often use picot cast off for edges in my designs, particularly where I’m looking for visual simplicity but think a dead plain edge might seem a bit too abrupt. For example, I could have finished with a plain garter stitch edging on my Gradient Shawl and Garden Song blanket and cushion (above), but by adding the picot cast off I hope you agree it adds a little something special to these projects.
My style and taste tends towards what I would describe as ‘finely rustic’ - not too ‘fancy pants’ and frilly, but with a little bit of softness and/or fine detail, so picot cast off works really well for me. But picot cast off can really come into its own with more delicate and elegant projects like the deliciously frothy Ice Boa and cuffs (below) by Alison Crowther Smith from our book Elements: 24 hand knit designs inspired by nature and the outdoors.
Elements knitting patterns
Learning this picot cast off will add another string to your knitterly bow, and enable you to successfully add your own personal touch to projects, and get a great finish.
In the video tutorial below I demonstrate how to do this simple cast off, share with you how this great little cast off ‘works’, and how to adapt it to get different effects so you can customise it for our own purposes.
Picot Cast off Video Tutorial
More hints and tips for Picot Cast Off (Bind Off)
I particularly like to add picot cast off to a garter stitch edging, but there is no reason why you can’t use it on a stocking (stockinette) stitch, or indeed other stitch edge. If you weren’t sure if you’re going to like it, try it out on a swatch before you start on your project.
The picot cast off will by nature tend to splay out a bit. That’s great on the edge of shawls etc where you might want to have a softer, edge with a slight frilling. If you want a more constrained edge though, using a smaller size needle to rein it in a bit.
Make sure you block it, ideally pinning each picot to ensure the points are shown to best effect. They don’t look half as pretty all bunched and pointing in random directions - unlessof course that’s the look you’re going for!
I hope you found this tutorial helpful. If you are interested in learning more about cast offs you should checkout this post introducing my Cast On Toolkit which is available free for the lovely folk on my email list.
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