Magic loop is a way of knitting a small circumference
of knitting in the round using a much longer
needle.
And it is a favorite technique of people who
knit socks, sweaters, sleeves.
You don't have to have the exact, right size
of circular needles to knit something in the
round.
I have several videos on magic loop, different
tutorials.
And I have a video called "Simple Magic Loop,"
and I'll give you a link here to that video.
I put that video out years ago and I've gotten
good feedback on it, but a question is always
coming up, like, "How do we start?"
And so in this video, I'm gonna show you how
to get started after casting on, how to get
your knitted started working in the round
on magic loop.
Let's go ahead and take a look.
Okay.
What I have here looks like quite a mess,
but we're gonna get this straightened out.
I have a number of stitches that is right,
appropriate for a hat, but I'm on 32-inch
circular and no one has a 32-inch head.
So, I'm gonna use magic loop for this.
And the first thing I wanna is to find something
somewhere close to the center of my cast-on
stitches and fold it in half and pull the
cord out.
Okay.
You see what I've done there?
I have something close to half the stitches
on each needle now.
And I'm going to pull the stitches close to
the tip of the needle so I can get a good
look at everything and make sure it's not
twisted because, just like joining in the
round on shorter circulars or with more stitches,
you want to make sure it's not twisted.
Okay.
This, right here, is called the magic loop
starting point.
We have the stitches all lined up.
The stitches are both pointing to the right
and my working yarn is on the back needle.
So, I am ready to go with joining this in
the round.
And so first thing I do is I pull the back
needle along, okay?
And then I'm going to take a stitch marker
and put that on the right needle.
Okay.
So my first stitch is here in my left hand,
just like if I was knitting anything else
that's not magic loop.
I put my needle in.
And I think this is the part that probably
makes everyone crazy because my working yarn
is all the way over here.
My first stitch is here, my working yarn is
here.
That's nuts.
What is going on?
Don't worry about it.
As soon as you pull on that working yarn,
it starts to make more sense.
Just pull on it, get it over there where it
belongs, and you can start knitting.
And you have joined in the round after you
work that first stitch.
Okay.
Now, if we take a look at what we have here,
we have cord sticking out over here and cord
sticking out over here, and then a little
small circumference of knitting here in the
center with the extra cord sticking out.
And without getting too redundant with the
other video, the simple magic loop video,
once I knit up to here, I can just find another
spot in my knitting and just pull the extra
cord out there instead.
And after the cast-on, you don't even really
have to have two spots of extra cord sticking
out.
You can just have one.
And the thing that...if you ever get confused,
just pick up your work, find your working
yarn, put it in your right hand and the stitch
to the left of the working yarn is your next
stitch.
That's it.
And you can knit a small circumference.
You can knit a hat on 32-inch circulars or
40-inch circulars this way.
No problem.
You don't have to have a special needle set
for it.
Anyway, that is how to get started from the
cast-on row with magic loop knitting.
Good luck.
