Adapting Any Round Pattern To Magic Loop

Many students ask me how to start using Magic Loop on patterns that don’t specifically call for it. This is a good question, because hardly any patterns specifically call for Magic Loop. Just like using a stand mixer is easier than mixing cookie dough with a spoon, but it’s your choice which one you use.

Magic Loop is just a technique – and a technique that most knitting designers don’t expect you to know. They’ll just tell you to mix the cookie dough with a spoon and be done with it.

When you see a pattern call for a set of DPNs or a certain length of circular needle, you’ll know that the project is knitted in the round and that you can use your 47-inch needle and Magic Loop.

When the pattern says, “CO 40 sts and divide evenly on DPNs for working in the round,” you just follow the technique we learned: CO 40 stitches onto your needle, slide them to the middle, divide the stitches in half, and proceed as in the pattern.

The only time that converting a pattern from DPNs to Magic Loop may present any kind of problem is when the designer instructs you to do things in relation to a certain needle.

This is common on small projects like socks and baby booties, e.g., “K to end of 2nd needle, turn.” In this case, you’ll just have to look at how many stitches they told you to put on each needle in the first place (let’s say it was 8), and do the math yourself: knit 16 and then turn. I doubt you’ll run into this problem anytime soon, but if you do, you’ll know what to do.

Practice Increasing And Decreasing

Here’s an exercise to help you get comfortable with Magic Loop: practice increasing and decreasing. This exercise will demonstrate one of the wonderful things about Magic Loop: that it dsn’t matter how many or how few stitches you have – you can do Magic Loop with 2-4 stitches.

Try doing that on DPNs without pulling your hair out. This is also a good opportunity to practice some intermediate knitting techniques, with which you will want to be familiar when we move on to more challenging projects.

To continue practicing reading a pattern, follow the steps below to experiment with increasing and decreasing using Magic Loop.

Increasing and Decreasing Swatch – Pattern Instructions

Rnd 1: *(K1, KFB), rep from * to end (30 sts).
Rnd 2 and all even rnds: Work even
Rnd 3: *(K2, KFB), rep from * to end (40 sts).
Rnd 5: *(K2, K2tog), rep from * to end (30 sts).
Rnd 7: *(K1, K2tog), rep from * to end (20 sts).
Rnd 9: K2tog around (10 sts).
BO all sts, break yarn. That is one ugly sample (if you did it right). Nice work.

Switch Needles on Magic Loop

To switch needles on Magic Loop, take the new circular needle you would like to switch to and then hold it in your right hand. With the new right-hand needle, begin knitting the stitches on the old left-hand needle.

When you get to the end of the row or round, pull the new needle through, and push the old needle into the stitches on the second half of the round. Knit the other half of the round with the new needle.

Once you get to the end of the round, the old needle should fall out and the new circular needles will be in your knitting. You’ve switched!

You can do this if you’ve got a project on double-pointed needles that you want to switch to Magic Loop, or in my case in the video, I wanted to switch from Addi Lace needles to Addi Turbos so I could speed through the cuffs of my socks.

Purling on Magic Loop