I had a request for a hat but of course my needles are back in Tampa so while I was out at the post office today, I stopped in to the small quilt shop in Jasper that also sells yarn and needles … only they didn’t have double pointed needles in the size I needed to go along with the circular needle I found there. The shop owner suggested I just make the hat using the Magic Loop method …. something I’m familiar with but have never tried. I had to restart once because I twisted it while I was fiddling with the cable but I think I’ve got it on the 2nd attempt.
I haven’t made much progress yet but I think I have the process down so we’ll see how it goes. I’m not using her pattern but I watched this video a few times to understand how to set up the hat and how to manipulate the cable and needles. Do you use Magic Loop in your knitting? Do you like the method?
Yes I use magic loop often. It can be fiddly at first, but I like it because I don’t have to hunt for different length cords. I have circular needles that you can change the cords.. not fixed. Of course I have a bunch of fixed ones too. If the cord isn’t long enough for magic loop, I have used travelling loop method too.
My daughter uses circular needles and the magic loop method. I started knitting twiddle/fidget muffs last year using lots of different colours. I hated having to join the strands together, colour matching, whilst sewing the seam. She got me to try a circular needle and now I love it. I’ve not needed to try the magic loop style but she is a whizz with it 🙂
I use Magic Loop for knitting socks. That’s gorgeous yarn that you are working with! I hope you’ll share the finished hat.
Yes, and love it for socks, hats, sleeves. I never could get the hang of double points.
I use magic loop. I’ve never been able to get the hang of double pointed needles. I’m always dropping stitches, so for me magic loop is great.
I knit all my hats on a circular needle but do not use Magic Loop. I cast on my stitiches; add one extra and then join my yarn by passing the extra stitch over the first stitch in the round and just like that I have a circle. When decreasing as I get down to much fewer stitches I switch to 4 needles. Made dozens of hats this way. I tried ML and can do it but need longer circular needles than I have for my hats. I use Magic loop for sleeves on sweaters I knit. never heard of the travelling loop method. Will have to check that out. I always have a hat on the needles.
All my circular needles are old (like me) and have thicker, stiffer cords than the modern circs. I can’t easily do magic loop with them. So I use the two-circ method instead, half the stitches on each circ. It works very well for me, much better than double-points.
I’ve tried Magic Loop but find it fiddly. I prefer to knit hats with two circular needles, the same way I knit socks.
I use magic loop for socks but for a hat I would want to use a short cable, at least past the first couple of rows, and up until decreases make it impossible. Even a baby hat fits on a short circular. Much faster and easier to keep tension consistent.
I do not like magic loop at all. I used it to do sleeves for a toddler’s jumper once and ended up with two massive ladders down each sleeve. Even blocking couldn’t fix it.
Yes, I really like circular needles and the magic loop method. I always guess though at how much yarn I’ll need to cast on so I was interested in seeing how the person in the video estimated her yarn length.
I was taught to knit using circular needles so when I started making socks I used the magic loop method. Of course, you need a long flexible cable so you don’t have to fight the needle but I love using this method. Pretty yarn!
I use magic loop for anything circular. So much easier than keeping track of double points. And have used traveling loop occasionally.
No, still using DPNs. Haven’t tried the magic loop. Can’t wait to hear how you’ve succeeded.