Cast On, Bind Off

On a recent quest to learn a new cast off technique, I became interested in finding out more.  These 2 books, both with the same title came up, so I ordered them from the library to see if they were worth the investment for my own library.

One has 54 techniques and the other 211?! I am a bit confused about how one has so many more, although when a particular bind off has multiple names, Sease counts each of the different names as a technique—cheating a bit I think, when I count them I get 144 different techniques, some a slight variation.  Impressive nonetheless.

Both books are spiral bound, the one by Leslie Ann Bestor is a more diminutive size (6″ x 7″), which would increase the portability.  I could see keeping this one in my knitting bag.  The book by Cap Sease is larger (9″ x 11″).  Both have good directions, Sease uses drawings to show the steps, and given the larger size of the book, the drawings are more readable, each one is followed by a photo of the finished technique.  Bestor uses actual photos to show the steps in each technique, sometimes those photos are hard to follow, especially when she uses a dark yarn.

When I compare my favorite tubular cast-ons and cast off, both have the setup sort of correct, but miss using a larger size needle at the beginning (see my notes here).  The tubular bind off for the 1x 1 rib is exactly what I would do, but the 2 x 2 rib is missing a step which I will discuss in an upcoming post.

I have not done a step by step comparison of each technique, but in my overview I do think that Sease has more techniques in the book, in spite of calling out the names multiple times.  Her directions are easier to read.  The Bestor book would be a handy reference to have in my knitting bag though.  I would recommend either of the books, as if is sometimes hard to find the best technique when you need it immediately.

That said, I just ordered both, Bestor for $10, and Sease for $19!