Knitting in-the-round with magic loop

Once upon a time there was a woman who could only knit using straight needles or the dreaded DPNs.  Knitting was dull and tedious, and involved using much seaming of garment pieces.  Then, she had the idea to learn to knit socks--not just one at-a-time because that was too tedious, but two-at-a-time! Surely if women during WWII could knit one sock inside the other and come out with a complete pair with DPNs, it was possible to knit two socks simultaneously somehow without using DPNs.  After much research, the woman realized that to do this crazy thing, she had to learn to knit using the magic loop method.  Lo and behold, a whole new kingdom of knitting wonderfulness was revealed!

I introduce what I am about to demonstrate to you in this dramatic fairytale way because, as a pattern designer, I tend to design patterns according to how I knit.  Several of my patterns require the use of the magic loop method because I assume that I am not the only knitter in the world who hates seaming (magic loop = no seaming!)  I am probably also not the only knitter in the world who hates clumsy DPNs for knitting in-the-round.  Consequently, I tend to also assume that if people are purchasing my patterns it is because they already know how to do the magic loop method.  In reality, that doesn't always seem to be the case.  So, I am including here a link to a video that I think is a very good demonstration (why re-create the wheel just so that you can hear my voice?) of how to begin using the magic loop method.  I can't thank this person enough (Youtube.com avatar is LiatMGat) for having made this very clear and simple video that I am now sharing with you.

 

Happy magic loop knitting to all!