I think the biggest hurdle knitters have to get over when they want to start knitting in the round — perhaps maybe how to manage double-pointed needles — is understanding logistically how to get started.
How do you keep your stitches from being twisted? How do you make all those floppy stitches behave so you can start knitting? Do you need to do anything special to start circular knitting or can you just, you know, knit?
I decided to try to answer these questions in a quick video.
I show you what a non-twisted cast on looks like and offer three different methods for joining in the round:
Casting on an extra stitch and working it together with the first cast-on stitch
Swapping the first and the last stitches one over the other so the stitches change position
Doing nothing
I’ve used all of these methods through the years and while doing something to hold those stitches together makes the whole thing a lot less wobbly, especially on DPNs, just starting knitting without any special preparation is fine, too.
How do you start knitting when working in the round? Do you use one of these methods or do something else? I’d love to hear about it.
I bring the working yarn forward, transfer the last stitch onto the first needle, lay the working yarn to the back between that last stitch and the next to last one, slide the last stitch back onto the right hand needle and start stitching. This avoids the lagging gap between the first stitch and the last stitch, and the whole thing is smooth as silk.
Thank you for the useful video, Sarah. I’ve been avoiding knitting in the round and found your information very helpful.
Thanks for the informative video. I like to knitting in the round, I primarily knit hats and some scarves in the round. I recently started knitting socks, currently on my second pair using double pointed needles. I look forward in the future to knitting cardigans for a smoother finish.
Thank you!
Please move your camera over to your work. We cannot see any knitting, only your left hand and the ball of yarn.
Many thanks. H.