Knitting in the round... Tips please

I’m new to knitting in the round. I’ve done a cardigan on circular needles but i guess that’s not technically in the round.

I’ve just started a top down Jersey. The pattern states to use 60cm circular needles however the nearest i can find are 80 cm.

The pattern starts with casting on 66 stitches as its a baby Jersey. My problem is that my needles are so long there aren’t enough stitches to go around and its very difficult to knit with all that plastic in the way… How do you overcome this?

Many thanks!

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This is the magic loop, awesome for just this problem. I use it for my daughter’s sweaters fairly often:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mqIqRdJc68

(Editing to add that if the loop part is sticking up at odd angles sometimes it helps to give the cable a nice hot bath/soak, loosens them up so they go where you want)

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Amazing! Thank you so much! Its hard to tell google exactly what you want when you don’t know exactly what you are looking for. This is perfect thank you so much :pray:

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Its the best solution, my sister use to do this for all my family members sweaters. Its just cool thing but needs a great patience and passion in doing things

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Thank you!

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Magic Loop, definitely! SO agree with those who’ve already suggested it; fiddly to begin with - learning is pretty much always fiddly to begin with, isn’t it? - but SO much easier than dpns, and no need to have lots of different sized cables. It’s not magic, but it’s magically great. I can’t bear the thought of knitting in the round any other way.

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Although I love my DPNs (and when I’m knitting with them my husband is fascinated!) I think I must learn magic loop as it does seem a lot easier than having needles sticking out here there and everywhere!

I know we all have our favourite methods, and sometimes it’s quite hard to get over that and try something new; then there’s the learning curve, which can be quite difficult and off-putting; then, sometimes, there’s that wonderful moment when you realise you’ve ‘come home’ - when you get through the stumbling, fumbling ineptitude and find fluency, like language learning. Suddenly you can speak your new technique, and it’s just great. Sometimes it never happens and the struggle overwhelms, the incentive to try is stymied and we go back to the tried and tested. But it seems to me that it’s always good to try hard enough and long enough to get through that original learning curve and just find out if it’s good for you. If it isn’t, well, no matter - at least you’ve tried and you might get lucky!!

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Actually when I think about it I do a form of magic loop because sooner or later I transfer from my DPNs onto circulars and end up splitting the stitches in two and pulling out the cable…I just don’t start it off using magic loop! :slight_smile: I just need to start using it a little earlier :slight_smile:

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While magic loop is a bit fiddly at the start, you’ll quickly get the hang of it! I use “traveling loop” for the body of a hat and magic loop for the decreases. This also solves my ongoing problem of too-tight stitches at the beginning of a hat.

I’ve only ever tried dpns once for sleeves on a baby Jersey and i couldn’t stand them… Are you saying Icould use the magic loop technique and ditch the dpns? That would totally make my day!

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Maybe I wasn’t doing it right when I had a quick gobafter seeing these posts ut didn’t seem too tricky at all… Nothing compared to the trouble I had with dpns :joy: Will have to Google tje travelling loop…its all new to me I’ve only been knitting for a year. Love this forum.

I’m new to all of this as I’ve only been knitting for a year in between baby sleeps so its hard to find a rhythm but I’ve had a few of those moments you talk about and this forum has been amazing. I actually joined last year under another name but couldn’t find my details, but its been so helpful!

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I think I need to be a bit braver and give it a try :blush:

Here is the technique I used. :smiley: When I first tried magic loop, I thought I’d never be able to figure it out. Once I had the hang of it, it seemed to slow me down. I then gave “traveling loop” a try to start a hat and loved it. Once I got to the place in the decreases when stitches became tight, I switched to magic loop. I got all the way down to four stitches on the needles (hat had a tiny point at the top) with no DPNs. Be sure to use needles that have a flexible cord, and one long enough (24 or 36 inches) for your needs. Magical!

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I’m three quarters of the way through one sleeve of the sweater I’m making for my mum on DPNs. So I’ll do the other sleeve on DPNs but before I make a start on hubby’s sweater I must have a go at magic loop and see if I can get the hang of it! :slight_smile:

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Don’t forget, there’s also the “2 circulars method” for doing things in the round that are too small for a single circ. I must confess I’ve never tried it because I love using dpns, but I gather lots of people love it.

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Go for it!

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I’ve started the second sleeve of mum’s sweater and have chickened out slightly! I did the ribbing on DPNs but then instead of transferring it onto larger DPNs to carry on the sleeve I transferred it onto a circular needle. So far so good :slight_smile:

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Pshaw, that’s not chickening out :slight_smile: Ribbing on dpns stinks sometimes. What matters for the trying is that you swapped over after the ribbing! And if you don’t like it you swap back and maybe try again some other time! Rooting for you!

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