This chapter is part of our Magic Loop Video Class. Click here to learn more.
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.
