Until a few years ago, I only ever cast on and off using the same methods I’d used since I learnt to knit. It never occurred to me that there were other, better, ways to do either. When I first tried long-tail cast on, it was almost as if I’d discovered the key to the meaning of life. 
I’ve found new ways to cast off as well, like the wonderfully stretchy way to cast off for the edges of shawls. But I’d always wanted to find a neater way to cast off for ribbing. Montse Stanley states that tubular is the best and though I wouldn’t argue with her (she scares me too much), I just couldn’t get my head around how it worked from the confusing drawings in her book.
So today I tried Googling to see what I found, and stumbled across savannahchik‘s blog. And then I had the wonderful lightbulb moment. It’s GRAFTING and I am an idiot. Armed with this knowledge, I did what Montse suggests for stupid people like me and separated the knit stitches and purl stitches – the knits all on the front needle and the purls on the back – so it was just as if I was about to graft a sock toe, and began casting off in a tubular fashion. I fear it’s a bit bumpy, but hope it blocks out neatly because I think it’ll be a winner. No obvious line of stitches for the cast off and it’s very stretchy.
BTW, the ribbing is the bottom edge of the body of an Offset Wraplan which I am knitting as a baby gift for one of my sister’s schoolfriends. As she isn’t a knitter, I don’t suppose she’ll even notice the type of cast off, but at least I’m getting to try new techniques. 
I am looking forward to trying the tubular bind-off. I’d never heard of it. I have gotten to where I love Kitchener so I should enjoy this too! Thanks for the tutorial link!
I always find myself going back to the long-tail cast on too. I need to branch out on that side of things as well.
The more I see, the more I understand I’m not the experienced knitter I thought I was….
Awesome!! The way you’ve described it makes so much more sense than anything else I’ve read! I understand it now, thank you!! Now I need to find something to cast off to do this technique…
I tried tubular cast off once (I think for my endpaper mitts) and really quite liked it. I should try again for the next pair of toe up socks.
I was wondering if you’d ever posted that stretchy shawl cast-off technique, and if so, could you possibly post a link for it? I’d like one that is less stressful than using the standard one and trying to keep it stretchy…
THAT is a seriously cute baby sweater.
I thought I knew about knitting and I thought you just cast off like my Mum showed me when I was about 5. This needs further investigation, never too old to learn.
Congratulations on trying out new techniques! That’s such a nice thing to do because you get to have so many aha! moments, – it’s really good fun, isn’t it!
Have you ever looked at the TECHknitting blog? This lady knows more than a thing or two – there is some really fabulous stuff to be learnt. I thought I was quite good, but since dipping into the blog I changed my mind! Love all the graphics, they are very clear and helpful.
The index is here: http://techknitter.blogspot.com/2010/04/revised-unified-index-for.html – check for that last two entries under ‘bind off’ – I really like the ‘false tubular cast off’ for ribbing, it is quicker though a bit tricky in getting the tension of the knit stitches right.