Hi, I have a question…I’m starting a hat on circular needles and it say to cast on and then join. How do you join? Thanks.
It’s really quite easy. The needle has to be short enough that you can spread the stitches out from tip to tip. Hold the 2 needle tips together. Assuming you did a cable or knitted cast on, the tail from the beginning of your cast on should be on the end that is in your left hand and the working yarn should be coming off the end of the needle in your right hand. Slip the right hand needle into the first loop on the left hand side and knit it. Cintinue around… and around and around.
There’s a video on the Advanced Techniques tab under “View Videos”
Make sure the stitches aren’t twisted and then with the working yarn coming off your right needle start knitting.
A 16" needle (measured tip to tip) is the best size for a hat. If it’s too large you’ll need to do magic loop or modified magic loop.
Here’s the KH video for knitting in the round.
http://www.knittinghelp.com/apps/flash/video_player/play/5/1
And another site with good pictures and it shows you the proper way to hold the needles so you’re not knitting inside out.
http://community.knitpicks.com/notes/Knitting_in_the_Round
Tip: knit a few rows before joining…it helps keep the stitches from being twisted. If they twist you have no choice, but to start over.
A lot of people also like to cast-on one extra stitch. Then you knit your first row as if on straight needles…but when you come back to the end, knit the first and last stitches of the row together into a circle and treat that as one stitch.
So basically, joining is just beginning to knit after casting on?
This is a great site!! Thanks for the help Jan and everyone else!!!
Yep, that’s all. Just knit the st on the other end of the circ and keep going.