When you knit a toe-up sock, eventually you come to the end. (One hopes!) And when you do, you have to figure out how to bind off.
The problem with the regular bind off that everyone uses is that it is a very firm and inelastic bind-off. That's fine for most things. But it is not going to work for a sock, where the top edge needs to stretch. Trust me, if you bind off the usual way at the top of a sock, it is going to be a very uncomfortable garment!
Another time when you want an elastic bind-off is if you knit a hat from the top down. I once knit a hat top down and used a regular bind-off at the end. BIG mistake. The bind-off row cut into my forehead. It was terrible.
What you need in these situations is an elastic bind-off. One of the most common of these, one which I learned as a beginning knitter, is Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind-off. The down side to this bind-off is that you have to pull a single (very long) strand of yarn through each stitch twice. I found it to be somewhat tedious, and hard on the arms. However, it does produce a nice elastic bind-off, and it is very easy to learn and memorize.
Another good elastic bind-off is Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off. The only trick to this one is wrapping your yarnover in the right direction if you are doing ribbing (which you presumably will be, at the top of a sock). It really is surprisingly stretchy, too!
My current favorite is called the Suspended Bind-Off. I find it a little bit easier to work than Jeny's, and I catch the rhythm of it easier. The results are practically identical, though. They both work very well.
Image courtesy Flickr/splityarn
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