Hi, Guys, I’m Kristen and Welcome to Studio Knit!
It’s Hat Month and I have been receiving a lot of requests from you on how to knit
on circular needles! Today with my five easy steps, you can start knitting in the round
like a pro!
When I make my hats, I love using my CIRCULAR NEEDLES, some people like to call this a MAGIC
LOOP. It's essentially just your two knitting needles and instead of them being separate,
there is this, like, acrylic plastic loop. So, it's circular, so you can just keep knitting
around and around and around rather than going back and forth and back and forth and back
and forth like you're used to with just your straight knitting needles. So, you can make
hats with just straight knitting needles, but to make them quickly and most enjoyably,
I love using one of these!
So, let's check it out! To begin, we are going to cast on. The cast on is similar to how
we cast on on our regular straight needles. And if you'd like to see a complete tutorial
on casting on, this is the long-tail method, I have a link in the description below. So,
just on the right needle, we are going to cast on the number of stitches that your pattern
requires. And when you're done, then your stitches will go all the way around your circular
needle. Two, all patterns will tell to you be careful NOT to Twist your stitches. What
does that mean? Well, after casting on, the stitches might wrap around like this. So,
you need to make sure before you do your first round of knitting that all of your stitches
are straight. So, that means that the edge of your knitting right here is in the middle
of your circle. We are going to JOIN. This is often called Joining in the Round. I'm
going to put a stitch marker on, I just like to use a bit of yarn for my stitch marker
and since I am a right hand knitter, I am going to take both the tail and my yarn for
my first stitch and go ahead and just knit it through. That just helps me feel like it's
a little bit more secure in joining in the round. And once you've done that, you can
let go of that yarn tail, and take your one strand of yarn, and continue knitting around
and around. Pretty simple stuff! And this is what I like to call the Knit and Scootch.
As we're knitting in the round, what will happen is that your right side you have to
SCOOTCH your stitches down, because they bunch up and to continue knitting, you need to scootch
your stitches on the left UP. And lastly, is a really great little trick for weaving
in the tail. Instead of having to weave in our yarn end, here on the edge of our knitting,
we are going to go ahead and on the second round of knitting take both the yarn tail
and your yarn, after moving your stitch marker, and knit them together right like this, knit
it nice and tight, and what I like to do is I like to knit three stitches with both the
yarn tail and my yarn together. And this way, I don't have to weave in that yarn tail when
I'm done knitting. It is ready to cut off any time. We can even do it right now, and
it will hold right in there in those stitches that we just knit. Very cool. I hope you are
inspired to give KNITTING IN THE ROUND a try on circular needles, or you can call it a
MAGIC LOOP. And thank you so much for watching Studio Knit. Please subscribe and my playlist
for everything HAT OF THE MONTH related is in the description below. Bye!