How to Knit with the Magic Loop

I belong to a Facebook group that’s for beginning knitters because I like to see some of the questions that they have, and I feel like a lot of knitters report not liking or being intimidated to try circular knitting.

Some people don’t even want to knit flat on circular needles, which is weird to me. It’s just a longer needle that makes it easier to work a wider project.

I think some of the worry when it comes to circular knitting is thinking about double-pointed needles or worrying that the circular needle you have isn’t going to be the right length for the project you’re working on.

And one great way to deal with both of those problems is to learn how to use the magic loop method of knitting.

Magic loop involves a long circular needle that’s pinched and pulled out so that you can work with the needle tips even as there is extra cable hanging out around your project.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to do, and less of a hassle than working with double pointed needles. You also don’t have to worry that your cable is the right length for your project (indeed longer ones are easier to work with in this method).

If you don’t have a circular needle that’s long enough to do magic loop for the project you’re working but it’s still too long to comfortably hold all the stitches, you can do a modified magic loop (which you can see in action here; give me a follow if you like!) with only one “ear” or loop instead of two.

Check out this post on Knit Darling that includes a handy chart showing all the steps for working magic loop style (only a portion of which is shown above).

Do you use the magic loop method or do you have another way you prefer to work in the round? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo: Knit Darling]

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Linen stitch is one of my favorite knitting stitch patterns that, every time I use it in a project, I think about how I don’t use it often enough.

It’s an easy stitch to make, with slip stitches done with the yarn held to the front of the work on the right/front side and to the back on the wrong/back side, which makes the strand of yarn a visible part of the pattern.

It also makes a fabric that is thick and looks kind of like a woven fabric.

I recently used linen stitch to make a double-thick pot holder, which I worked in a kind of interesting way. I didn’t want to have to do any sewing on the project, so I started it from a crochet cast on and picked up stitches from the side of the cast on to make the hot pad all in one piece in the round with the edge sealed.

This requires working on two circular needles, which is another technique I don’t use that often and am always reminded how much I like it when I do.

The combination of double thickness and the stitch pattern makes for a hot pad that’s already pretty thick, but I also added a bit of old towel to the inside before I closed up the end to make it super thick and extra protective for your surfaces.

I found the engineering challenge of this construction method to be a lot of fun, but you could also just knit it as a tube (casting on twice as many stitches as I did) and sew up the ends by hand when the knitting is done. Either way you’ve got a useful and pretty addition to your kitchen, whether you work it in a solid color, stripes or as a stash busting project will all your cotton odd balls.

You can grab the pattern over at Our Daily Craft, or check it out on Ravelry.

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