Cast On, Bind Off: 211 Ways to Begin and End Your Knitting Kindle Edition

Cast On, Bind Off: 211 Ways to Begin and End Your KnittingCap SeaseMartingale, 2012162 pages, Craft ReferenceKindle, Hardcover (Spiral), PaperbackPurchased at the current price✭✭✭✭✭The cover is very attractive and tells you immediately that it’s a book about knitting with its two wooden knitting needles and the examples of knitting arranged in a grid. The examples are in different colors, so it’s colorful all set against a pristine white backdrop.The author is home taught, as in her grandmother taught her how to knit. That’s the best kind, but don’t feel bad if you learned in school or had to take classes in a yarn shop or a friend taught you. Any way you learned is valid as long as you learned, feel secure in your technique, and get good results. If you don’t feel you have either or both casting on or binding off nailed down or you’re looking for a different technique or edge, this is the book for you.Ms. Sease speaks in an easy to understand style that makes you feel as if you are sitting with her over tea and learning the techniques from her in person. She does start out with a few charts. First to list the types of cast ons, then the bind offs. Then she lists the pairs that go together to give you matching edges. I thought that would be a particularly helpful list for future projects.From the lists, she jumps right into how to do each of the cast ons and then each of the bind offs. She has them broken down into categories, such as those that start from a slip knot, long tail, and such. She shares the advantages and disadvantages of each and has very clear illustrations showing how each is done. I felt between her worded description of the stitches and the illustrations there wasn’t a technique I wouldn’t be able to do.I bought this book because I couldn’t find the stretchy bind off I needed on Pinterest for my current project and I really needed to get it off the needles. I found this book on Amazon at a reasonable price and downloaded it immediately. I skimmed through it looking for my stretchy bind off and finished my project. Then I went back and read through the whole book. I was so excited about bind offs when I finished. I want to try some of the fancier ones sometime. There are some really pretty ones that create picot, curled, or looped edges that I thought I’d like to try just for the fun of it. I highly recommend this book whether you are a beginning knitter or an expert knitter. Just imagine, 211 ways to start or stop!

It's my go to reference for starting or ending a knitting project!

This is a lovely and helpful book. I am a very experienced knitter, and have found this a useful reference book that even includes cast ons and bind offs I have never seen nor used before. The written directions are clear and for those of us who are visual learners, they are accompanied by very nice, (large) easily "read" illustrations. There is also a sharp photo of every technique which is easy to see and helps you to know if this is a cast-on or bind-off that would work for the project you are undertaking. (See images on the site). I have tried several of the techniques prior to writing this review just to be sure that the directions make sense and everything went smoothly.I particularly like the three tables at the beginning of the book. One gives a list of purposes for cast ons (and one for bind offs), so that if you are looking for a durable cast-on or an elastic bind off, you know which type to use. The third table is the best, because it lists cast ons and bind offs that will create matching edges (...And you have a choice of nine different types!)Although the book advertises (more than) 120 cast ons and (more than) 80 bind-offs, one should remember that it includes many variations on techniques along with cast ons/bind offs for very particular uses, so you should not expect 120 cast ons for every occasion. It is a strength that this book addresses particular needs (as well as general ones), for example circular cast ons, sock toe cast ons, two stranded knitting cast ons, decorative bind offs, etc.The book is spiral bound and large (pages are 8.5 by 11" (21 x 27.5cm)) so those that found the pictures unclear or too small in the book on 54 Cast Ons/Bind Off should be much happier. For me it is almost too large (I would like to carry a smaller version in my knitting bag, but also understand those that want the larger clearer illustrations.) The format is clean and very nice. Martingale Press has done a very nice job on the styling and printing of the book and the book can be opened from the front and the back without that problem of pages getting caught on the spirals. The index also seems to be quite thorough. You can look up cast ons/bind offs by name as well as function. (Elastic, lace bind offs, Judy's Magic cast on, reversible cast ons (etc.)SummaryPros:Lots of cast ons and bind offs.Clear instructions (both words and images)A photo for every primary technique.Sprial bound (such that book can be opened either way without leaves catching.)Tables for bind off/ cast on purposes and matching edges.Good indexCons:(Perhaps?) Too large to take along (for some). (8.5 x 11")