how do I bind off a single stitch

[ocgirl]

I'm a beginner knitter. I'm making a scarf that has a divided slit. The pattern says to join 2nd ball and bind off center stitch. I'm at the center stitch, have joined the 2nd ball...now what? I have only done binding off at the end of a section. So, I'm used to that kind of binding off. the pattern is mistake rib. So, the center stitch is the 2nd p. It's seems that everything I try gives me an extra stitch.

I'm also new to this forum and website. This is my first post.

Thanks for any help.

[trvvn5]

I'm a little confused by what you are trying to acheive. You should be able to bind off a single stitch very easily. If that single stitch has a stitch following it you should be able to just knit the next stitch, pass the first stitch over it and then continue with your knitting. Do you have a link to the pattern so that I can see it to understand it better.

[ocgirl]

Thanks for your reply. I don't have a link to the pattern. I'm knitting a scarf that has a divided slit in it in order to pull the other end through. So I've stitched 9" of mistake rib. Now I'm on the row that the slit begins. In the middle of that row I'm to bind off the center stitch. I'm used to binding off by knit 2 then pull the 1st knit over the 2nd knit. When I try to do this it doesn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong because I end up with the same # of stitches instead of getting rid of one. Can I achieve the same thing if I decrease? I'm supposed to, at this point, be working with 2 separate balls of yarn working 2 separate sections for the next 4". At that point the divided slit ends, I cut off the 2nd ball and continue working with the original.

[trvvn5]

Thanks for your reply. I don't have a link to the pattern. I'm knitting a scarf that has a divided slit in it in order to pull the other end through. So I've stitched 9" of mistake rib. Now I'm on the row that the slit begins. In the middle of that row I'm to bind off the center stitch. I'm used to binding off by knit 2 then pull the 1st knit over the 2nd knit. When I try to do this it doesn't work. I don't know what I'm doing wrong because I end up with the same # of stitches instead of getting rid of one. Can I achieve the same thing if I decrease? I'm supposed to, at this point, be working with 2 separate balls of yarn working 2 separate sections for the next 4". At that point the divided slit ends, I cut off the 2nd ball and continue working with the original.

Ok. You should be able to bind off simply by knitting the middle stitch, knit the stitch directly after it, then pass the middle stitch back over the second knit stitch and off the needle. I assume that you are probably doing something on the other side of the bind off in order to get that stitch back. If its a scarf it probably wants you to maintain the number of stitches while doing the bind off, which means that there is going to be an increase somewhere else to make up for the loss of that bind off stitch.

You can't do this with a decrease. The purpose of the bind off is that if you do it in the same place over and over again its going to cause the slit, it makes a gap in the fabric. If you use a decrease you are only going to reduce the number of stitches while keeping the stitches linked together. By using the bind off, you are going to break that link and create the slit.

[suzeeq]

If it's just 1 stitch you can decrease like a ssk, but use the new yarn to do it, or drop the yarn you've been using after the decrease and use the other strand. You only need to do a proper bindoff if it's for more than 2 sts.