#knitting magic loop

[iplaywithstring]

People were intrigued by doing sleeves two at a time on one needle (magic loop). There are MANY magic loop tutorials/videos that exist, so this is not a full tutorial, just progress pictures because I was picking up sleeves anyway.

You're going to want a longer circular needle for this - 32" ( I think, hard to measure after I've got the sleeves on it). You also need two balls of yarn (unless you work from the outside and inside of one ball of yarn like I do for socks but really I don't recommend following my example on that).

Step 1: Pick up the top of the sleeves. I started about 10 sts from the armpit. Do both sleeves. You're just sliding the stitches onto the needle (I keep my life line/waste yarn in when I do this).

Step 2: Push the work toward the other end of the needle so you leave a gap when you start to pick up the bottom part of the sleeve. You could join your yarn here if you want, but I like to make things difficult for myself and put the join at the underarm, so again, I am just slipping the stitches onto the needle until I get to the underarm. If you join the yarn earlier, go to step 3b

Step 3a: Use knit cast on for under arm stitches.

Step 3b: From this point on you need to knit the stitches onto the needle. This is much easier if you slip the stitches onto the other end of the needle. Don't worry about the stitches from the other sleeve yet because they'll all be transferred to the right needle. Knit until you have knit the remaining stitches from that sleeve

Step 4: take a breath, you've got one sleeve picked up! Now if you're not used to magic loop, you need to make sure when you move your work on the cable you don't pop out that loop (the purple cable sticking up in the above picture). If you did 3b, skip to 5b and use your second ball of yarn.

Step 5a: Slip the other sleeves stitches onto the cable until you get to the underarm, use knit cast on for your underarm stitches with your second ball of yarn.

Step 5b - pick up the other (left) needle, make another loop in the cable, and pick up the stitches that you will need to knit. All of the stitches are now on the needle. There is a loop of cable on the left, the needles meet for the left sleeve, then there is the right sleeve and another loop of cable. Each sleeve is joined to a different ball of yarn

Step 6 - knit the stitches on the left hand needle until both needle tips are on that side and there is still a loop on the right side of the work

Step 7: Flip it over, carefully pull out a loop of cable like you did in step 2, and keep knitting. Don't forget to change yarn strands when you get to the other sleeve.

I will typically put a stitch marker on the sleeve that I cast on first, just so I remember and don't make one sleeve a row longer than the other.

From this point, you'll knit the top of sleeve 1, top of sleeve 2, bottom of sleeve 2, bottom of sleeve 1, then repeat until you're done.

The benefit of this method is that if I do any patterning or changes or follow any whims (cables! Lace! Decreases! Colour changes!) I can do it on one sleeve and then immediately do it on the other. You will also continually work both sleeves - in order to skip one sleeve you'd have to start purling.

When it's time to cast off, you can put a stitch holder in the stitch from one sleeve while you work on casting off the other.

You do have to do some yarn management, but you get used to it and it's not so bad.

[saturnvs]

a colorwork cuff for a sock :-)

[textilefile]

A couple pictures of me out and about in my winter handiwork :) my boyfriend’s grandmother, who invented magic loop (not exaggerating), called it masterful. The highest praise there is!

[uncanny-tranny]

Something that amuses me between knitters and crocheters is this... almost humble nature each craft has about the other. I couldn't imagine how one would knit, and I know some of the basics - and yet, I have met so many knitters who say crochet is impossible, and yet I find it to be so simple. There's just something charming about when one recognizes just how much skill, effort, patience, and care go into a craft, and to be humbled by just how incredible human ingenuity and creativity are

[femmeknitted]

out of curiosity...

Adding pictures in case anyone doesn't know what something is or if it's called something else where you're from:

Reblog for a bigger sample size <;3 (if you want)

[donethedevilspedicure]

as a knitter of barely one year and haver of gravity falls brainrot, I love that Mabel and Fiddleford canonically knit. I desire Mabel and sanity restored Fiddleford bonding over knitting techniques 🥺

[the-fiction-will-knit-the-real]

OK, so I've been knitting since 2010, and I just learned 2 things.

[1] Magic loop was invented around 2002

[2] Circular needles were invented in the 1910s

That means that, if you were knitting as recently as just over 100 years ago, you either were knitting with straight needles or with double points

??????????????

I fucking hate straight needles, and I fucking despise double points [personally, I know not everyone does]

I like to imagine knitting as this craft that goes back hundreds of years and connects me to history and all that. And in some ways it is

But then I find out that I've been ALIVE longer than the magic loop method? If my grandmother had been able to teach me to knit [she died around the time I was born but was apparently a very experienced knitter], she wouldn't have even known what magic loop was???????

I also wonder if I would have even liked knitting at all If I was stuck with straight needles and double points

Idk my mind is blown over this and I guess I just need to remember that my knitting is a modern craft that is only in some ways related to historical knitting

[yarnoveralison]

Day 2 of my second pair of socks ever

The progress pic was a little difficult to get today lol I tried real hard to get a good angle. But the heel flap stitches are chefs kisssss!!!!

I’m absolutely loving the way this sock is looking. I was a little nervous because this is my first time doing a pair of short socks. Also I wasn’t too sure if this yarn was a little too thick. It is a fingering / sock weight but it felt a little thicker than my other sock weight yarn.

I’m also happy to say I got a lot more done today than I thought I would 😎 I finished the heel flap, heel turn, and gusset *deep sigh* now just a shit ton of knit rows then the toes!

[kneading-stitches]

Second sock syndrome? Sorry, don't know her 💅🏻

Patons Kroy FX | Celestial Colors

Vanilla Socks on Magic Loop | Crazy Sock Lady Designs

[siriscrafts]

I finished the reversible double-knitted mittens! The symbol on them is from Skyrim. It's the fiery hand of destruction, symbol for the destruction school of magic! I've taken to calling these "the mittens of resist frost".

Pattern was improvised on the go. It was easy because I made these with magic loop, ie. two at the same time on one long circular needle. (Lots of untangling on the go was also required... I also had both ends of one ball of yarn going into each mitten.)

[saturnvs]

striped sock! :D

(i'm going through a sock phase)

[textilefile]

guys not to brag but I’ve become friends with a guy whose grandma invented Magic Loop knitting. She is the inventor of Magic Loop. he wants me to meet her, please let me know if anyone has questions for the queen herself, the inventor of Magic Loop and my friend Patrick’s grandma

[daiyanerd]

Knitting a pair of warm wool socks in advance of the winter storm coming this weekend. I usually do socks 2 at a time but i hadn’t done this pattern so did 1 to check the fit. “When you finish the first sock, immediately cast on for the second. This improves your odds of getting a pair” - the Yarn Harlot

[ce-archerhelke]

I think I finally figured out this magic loop business guys...

[elisela]

calling these my popsicle socks

[kaiyonohime]

Started knitting the sleeves for my cardigan and decided fuck it, time to learn and use magic loop.

It's a thing. That's going. Probably need a longer cable next time though. But at least I just need to knit the sleeves once!