If you’re not a fan of using double pointed needles, a wonderful alternative is the so-called Magic Loop.  Using long circular needles, this technique for working in the round avoids the use of double pointed needles, even for items very small circumferences, like wee little socks, crowns of hats, and cuffs of sleeves… Magic! Our Magic Loop Tutorial explains the steps, but the basic concept is to divide your stitches between the tips of your circular needles, and to work each half of the stitches with the other needle. The trick is in sliding the stitches onto the cord in order to free up the needle so you can knit the stitches that remain on the other needle. Harder to explain than do… Follow along!

Click To See Video Transcript

Hey guys, this is Laura from Purl Soho and I’m going to show you how to work Magic Loop. Magic Loop is a technique for working in the round, and although it is worked on pretty long circular needles, it is especially great for smaller circumferences, and I’m going to show you why. Because of this it’s a great alternative for those of you who just do not like double points. 

Alright. So as you can see here, I have a few stitches cast onto this 40-inch circular needle. You could use a 32 inch, you could use a 60 inch. It’s kind of up to you. It has a little bit to do with how big your circumference of your final object is. I find that 40 inches often right in the sweet spot. So let’s get our needles oriented for this technique. So the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to take these cast on stitches and I’m going to push ’em towards the center of my cord between my two needles. Alright. Now that there’s somewhat at the center of my cord, the next thing I’m going to do is take my cord and fold it in half. When I fold it in half, I’m going to push this end towards my left, and I want to make sure my working yarn is coming off the back, is away from me. The other thing I want to make sure to check for is that no stitches are twisted. We always want to check that before joining in the round. And now that we’ve done all of those checks, I’m ready for my next step. 

What I want to do is divide these 30 stitches in half, and so that’s 15. So 2, 4, 6, oop, 2, 4 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15. Fifteen. So I’m going to grab the cord right here in the middle of my stitches, and I’m going to hold onto my stitches with my right hand and with my left hand, I’m going to just pull this cord, pull it, pull it, pull it. You’re going to pull the cord until your stitches wind up on your needles. You might have to push a little too. Push and pull. There we go. So now I have half of my stitches on my back needle, half of my stitches on my front needle. They’re not twisted, and my working yarn is coming off of the back needle. 

Next step is with my right hand, I’m going to grab the tip of this back needle, and I’m going to pull it towards the, right now I’m pulling it towards the right because I want to create enough slack in my cord here that I can turn the direction of my needle around and work across these stitches on the front needle. So I have enough slack. At this point, I’m going to just hold all of my stitches right here in this hand. I’m going to use the tip of my right needle and knit into the first stitch on my front needle. I have my working yarn coming from the back. There we go. I want to actually be under that working yarn. There we go. And now I’m going to just knit across the stitches on the front needle.

We’ve joined in the round now that we’ve knit that first stitch, and now I’m going to just continue to the end of the needle. All right. I have worked across that first half of the stitches and now it’s time to reorient my needles. So what I want to do at this point is I’m going to pull the cord from the back set of stitches. I’m going to pull this cord until these back stitches are on the needle, I’m going to turn my work. So once again, the tips of my needles are pointed towards the right, and here we are. It looks really similar to not just a couple steps ago where I have my two needles are parallel again. And once again, I’m going to use my right hand to pull the back needle out, create slack, turn my needle around, and then I’m ready to work across the second half of my stitches.

Alright, so I just worked across the second half of my stitches. Once again, I’m going to pull the cord on the back, the back half of the cord until both my sets of stitches are in needles. I’ve officially finished my first round. I joined in the round. I’m ready to continue my work. And you kind of just keep following these steps of getting your stitches oriented on the two needles, pulling the back needle, creating slack, working across half the stitches. And you can do notice here, I didn’t place a stitch marker, but I do have my tail here when I have my tail on the right side. I know that I’m at the beginning of my round. 

I have a small swatch here. I knit up using Magic Loop. I just wanted to demonstrate one last thing about Magic Loop and when you are binding off. So I’m going to bind off using a basic bind off just across this first half of the stitches and then just show you one little trick. Okay? Now as I near the end of this first half of my stitches and I bind off the second to last stitch, you can see I’m left with one loop left on my needle. So what I just wanted to point out really quickly was that in order to, bind off across the second set of the stitches as I normally would with Magic Loop. I’m going to get these back stitches on this needle when I turn my work so that my needles are pointing this way. This back needle, you don’t really need to pull the slack. You’re kind of already ready to just continue binding off. So now I’m just going to continue on and bind off the rest of this Magic Loop swatch.

Want to set your double pointed needles aside and try the Magic Loop? Cast on for our free Top Knot Baby Hat pattern in super soft Morning, our cotton-yak yarn, and experience the magic!

Magic Loop | Purl Soho

And once you’ve mastered one piece on Magic Loop, why not try two? To knit sleeves and socks in double-time, check out our Magic Loop: Two At A Time Tutorial next!

Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our free knitting patterns and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!