If you’ve been wanting to knit in the round but only have long circular needles on hand, the Magic Loop technique is your new best friend! This technique allows you to use long circular needles for knitting small diameter projects (like socks, sleeves, or beanies).
Read on for our guide to using the Magic Loop technique to level up your circular knitting skills!
The Magic Loop technique involves dividing your stitches in half and creating loops of spare cable on either side of your work. These loops keep your stitches close at hand without stretching them around the full length of your circular needle. It’s almost like using double-pointed needles, but with only a singular circular needle – and less chance of dropped stitches!
This means you can use the same circular needles for a tiny sock as you can for a full-sized jumper – how convenient!
How to do the Magic Loop
To start, cast on as normal and join your work to start knitting in the round.
Then, with your stitches in the centre of the cable and your needles pointing to the right, fold the cable in half, dividing the stitches into two.
Pull a loop of cable out the left side, leaving half of the stitches on your front needle and half on the back needle. The loop on the left keeps the excess cable out of the way.
Once you’ve done this, you can start knitting. Pull the back needle (your working needle) out as far as you need, creating another loop of cable. This loop on the right gives you enough space to comfortably maneuver your working needle. Using your working needle, knit along the front row until you reach the first loop of cable you created.
Now you can flip your work and repeat the process: move the front stitches to the tip of your non—working needle, pull your working needle to create a new loop, and repeat, knitting along the other half of your work.
This process is repeated for the rest of your project – knitting along the front half of the stitches, turning to the other side, adjusting your loops, and repeating.
Tips & Tricks
✸ If you’re using a new circular needle, the cable might be kinked or unwieldy. Giving it a dip in hot water will often allow the cable to relax into its natural shape, making it easier to use!
✸ It can be easy to twist your stitches when joining your work to knit in the round. It can help to knit the first few rows flat, then join your work with a stitch marker or two to ensure you haven’t twisted it over. Then you can sew the first few rows together using the tail left over from your cast-on.
✸ When you’re using a needle that’s only a bit too long for your project, you might not need the left loop of cable – if that’s the case, you can just knit along the front of the work, then pull the working needle long again and repeat, without creating a separate loop.
While it might seem a bit tricky at first, once you get into the swing of it, the Magic Loop technique is versatile and so useful – and means you don’t need to keep lots of different lengths of circular needles on hand. Give it a try and let us know how you go!
Ready to cast on? Try this technique today!