ML: How Long Should My Cable Be For

#1

I’m trying to get the hang of knitting in the round. I’ve tried the “travelling” loop method, but I keep ending up with a big gap between the first and last stitches (at the point where the knitting was joined). I’m thinking I’d like to try Magic Loop to see if that’s more comfortable for me and gives me better results.

If I’m looking to knit a baby sized hat, what cable length should I use for Magic Loop? Is there a general rule of thumb for the length of your cable based on the number of stitches you’re casting on?

Any advise would be appreciated! :muah:

#2

To avoid the gap with either ML or single loop, you need to hold the back of the needle close to the front of the needle when you work the sts on the front. However, you can do ML on a 29-32" for a baby hat.

#3

With ML they like a long cable. I’ve seen people swear by 40" for even things like the hat, but it doesn’t need to be that long to make a baby hat. I’ve done some little things with ML and the length I used was 32" (that is the length I happened to have in a flexible cord). A bit shorter might even work. But the cord needs to be very flexible. To me that is more important than incredible length.

I don’t know of a rule. If your project gets too many stitches you can just use a regular 16" needle and don’t need to do ML. It is the smaller number of stitches that makes you need to go to dpn, ML, two circulars or some other type of method to handle small numbers of sts.