Sock Heel Bindoff Alternative

MeMoiJa has a really neat trick to use the 3 needle bindoff for the sock heel, instead of kitchener stitch (which drives me slightly up the wall). Her examples uses dpn needles, which can be really tricky to manipulate. I tried adapting this technique with the 2 circs that I use and ended up having the stitches slip off and unraveling a bit.

So, I tried again . . . this time, knowing that the cables are flexible, I folded these in half, slipped my hand all the way into the tube, hooked my finger around the “U” part, and gingerly turned the sock inside out. Success!!! Then, I carefully slid the needle tips out of the sock, one at a time, and got a couple of stitches bound off. So far, it's working like a charm.

Wish I had my camera here at work. So now I need to get going on the orange sock heel so I can show y'all how I did this maneuver.

Update

Last night I had Bruce take pictures of me binding off these stitches.

First, you hold both needles together one hand so that these form a “U” loop.

Then you put your other hand into the open end of the sock, making sure to poke your first finger out of the heel end opening.

And then, for better control, it helps to pinch the sides using your thumb and second finger. Once you've got ahold of the needles, you can now go to the open end and pull it inside out.

Now both needle ends are inside the socks and you'll need to work these out. Simply grab one of the needle and and with your other hand, reach into the heel end and reach for the cable portion, and pull it out.

Repeat until all ends are out. . .

Then, gently pull the needles until the stitches are on the metal ends.

Proceed to do the 3 needle bind off. Just grab one of the needle ends - doesn't matter which one and use that to work both stitches.

You'll see that I've got two stitches worked already . . .

And then started binding these off.

Repeat until all the stitches are bound off, as you can see in the next picture . . .

You'll need to keep an eye on the tension of the stitches bound off - these are a bit too tight for my taste.

Here's how it looks now. Yes, there's a slight bump inside but this shouldn't be too noticeable since this yarn is fingering weight. I suppose it would be more noticeable if the yarn used was worsted weight.

And here's how it looks on my foot. Now I gotta knit it's twin . . .