Magic Loop 2.0 - Adapting Patterns, Purling, and More

Whee! Magic Loop is fun, right? What's that you say? It's not perfect? You still get a little stuck sometimes? Aha! Good! This is where we move from merely knowing a technique, to MASTERING it. It's in the little things! Here are a few tutorials to get things going smoothly.

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!

Pulling the first stitch too tight.
This is the most common mistake among Magic Loop knitters who have switched from using DPNs. Knitters pull their first stitch tight in order to prevent a gap from appearing between the needles. Here’s how to prevent a gap and also prevent your stitches from being too tight.

If you are having any difficulty getting your needle back into your stitches, you are probably pulling your first stitch too tight, trying to avoid a ladder.

Starting the round with a purl stitch

A KNITFreedom member emailed me and asked, "What if I am starting the round with a purl stitch? I keep messing up!" Does this sound familiar? If you knit American-style (with the yarn in your right hand), it is easy to get messed up. The key is making sure the working yarn is underneath your right needle before you begin the stitch. Otherwise you will get an extra loop.

1) Ready position;

2) Ready to purl the 1st stitch; 

3) Ready to purl the 2nd stitch.

And there you have it! I'd love to hear your comments and especially gripes about Magic Loop. Remember, we can't make stuff better and faster if we are too nice! Help me solve your Magic Loops woes.

These tutorials are part of a wonderful new e-book on Mastering Magic Loop. Click here to learn more.
To learn more about becoming a Knitting Superstar, click here.
Like free video tutorials? Browse my blog for videos.

What To Do When You Run Out Of Tail - Tricks For Casting On And Weaving In Short Ends

It happens. Sometimes, you run out of tail! When casting on 180 stitches for a sweater, you run out of tail at stitch number 175. Aarrgh! But don't worry - you can just use the backwards-loop cast-on for the last few stitches - save your knitting and your sanity! Here's how to do it:

A backwards-loop cast-on is the easiest way to add stitches in a pinch, whether you are casting on for a sweater or adding extra stitches for a buttonhole or picot bind-off.

Here's another sanity-saving trick. I know I always tell you to leave a six-inch tail, but... Let's say you need to weave in your ends on your knitting but you accidentally have only two inches of tail left to weave in. That's okay! The trick is to weave the tapestry needle through the stitches before you thread the yarn through - then pull. Here's a short video demonstrating the technique:

See? Now even if you have too short of a tail, you can still weave it in securely and correctly, just by inserting your tapestry needle before threading it.

These tutorial videos are a small part of my FREE Video Knitting Dictionary. Click here to download the dictionary now!

If you liked this post, you may want to watch:

• "How Your Fingers Aren't Getting In The Way - And Why That’s A Shame”
• E-Book Sneak Peek: Stretchy Bind-Offs 101
• "Messing Up Gracefully: How To Un-Knit And Get Unraveled Stitches Back On Your Needles”

Be sure to sign up for my FREE Video Newsletter, to get exclusive and timely tips and tricks in your email each week, as well as access to all my patterns!

How To Count Your Stitches And Rows FAST

In the words of Sharon Chang, one of my favorite Knitting Superstars, "Part of becoming a Knitting Superstar is knitting faster and more efficiently." But what if there were a way you could speed up your progress on a project, without changing how you knit at all? 

Of course, there are many. Since we all (hopefully) follow patterns and track our progress by counting stitches and rows, it makes sense that one of the quickest fixes to a slow-moving project is learning a few ways to count faster.

Counting your stitches faster

In my classes, I am amazed by how long knitters, even experts, take to count their stitches! Changing how you count takes practice, but this video contains a scientific secret that will give you the motivation and encouragement to try this new way.

Counting by fives is absolutely the fastest way to count stitches in knitting

An easy way to count your rows

Keeping track of how many rows you've knitted is vital for most knitting projects, yet many knitters wait until they think they've gone far enough to do anything about it! Here's a very simple trick that will make sure you never have to guess or think too hard when counting your rows. This way, you'll be absolutely sure how far you've gone, without any extra effort!

Placing a marker AROUND a stitch in "row 1" will help you count later!

Voila! I challenge you to start practicing these new ways of counting on your current knitting project - comment here and let me know what you think!

If you enjoyed this free video tutorial on knitting more efficiently, you might also like my videos on:

• “How To Knit Backwards And When To Do It”
• "Messing Up Gracefully: How To Un-Knit And Get Unraveled Stitches Back On Your Needles”
• “Speed Up Your Knitting! Avoid These Top Ten Mistakes That Will Slow You Down”

How To Knit Backwards And When To Do It

Want a faster way to turn a heel? KNITFreedom is all about better, faster and easier, and this technique is one of my favorites. This video comes as a bonus in my sock video e-books, and I wanted to share it with you here.

Knowing how to knit (well, purl, really) backwards is optional, but take a look and see if you feel comfortable trying it on your next sock heel. It will save you a lot of time because if you know how to do it, you don’t have to turn your work back and forth every row.

In this video I show you the American and Continental way to purl backwards

This technique is very useful in Entrelac knitting, where you constantly have to turn your work after only a few stitches, and, of course, in turning any sock heels or doing any kind of short-rows.

Yay! In only five minutes, you've learned to purl backwards and added another skill to your bag of tricks!

If you enjoyed this video tutorial, you might also like

• "Learn To Knit Continental-Style In One Evening"
• "Messing Up Gracefully: How To Un-Knit And Get Unraveled Stitches Back On Your Needles”
• “Speed Up Your Knitting! Avoid These Top Ten Mistakes That Will Slow You Down”

"Avoid The Terrible Tangles: Tips For Knitting Two-At-A-Time"

You've just learned the awesome technique of knitting two-at-a-time. But now you've got a tangled mess of yarn wrapped around your cable needles and hopelessly fused in your knitting bag. That's okay! I'll show you how to prevent your yarn from EVER tangling again. Remember, Two-at-a-Time is supposed to be better and easier! If it's not more magical in every way, I'll show you how to fix whatever's going on.

So: here's how to keep your balls of yarn from tangling when knitting 2-at-a-time:

The trick is to keep one strand of yarn to the front and the other to the back. Make sure you place your balls of yarn on either side of you! The key moment for keeping the yarns untangled is during "the switch."

Yay! Now you can knit two socks at a time without even breaking a (mental) sweat. Enjoy your newfound yarn serenity!

If you liked this video tutorial, you might also enjoy

• “It's Finally Here! The Most Complete Magic Loop Video Course Ever”
• "How to Knit Toe-Up Socks the Fastest and Easiest Way”
• “Speed Up Your Knitting! Avoid These Top Ten Mistakes That Will Slow You Down”

"Messing Up Gracefully: How To Un-Knit And Get Unraveled Stitches Back On Your Needles"

One of the most annoying knitting problems you probably face from time to time is not feeling confident in undoing your knitting mistakes, or, once undone, whether you've gotten your stitches back on your needles correctly.

I've made you two videos to clarify the correct way to undo your stitches, and I explain why you shouldn't worry about getting your stitches back on the right way at first.

Tinking (or Knitting - backwards) just means undoing one knitted stitch at a time and placing the old stitch back on the left needle. Here's how to do it:

Insert the left-hand needle from front to back into the stitch

below the stitch on your right-hand needle.

When you need to undo more than a few rows, it's fastest to remove the needle(s) and pull your yarn, undoing all the rows at once. Here's how to put your stitches back on your needle when you're done unraveling:

If the recovered stitches are facing the wrong way,
just knit them through their back loops.

Yay! Now you can un-knit with confidence and unravel with grace! Just keep in mind, messing up is part of knitting, and the faster you can fix your mistakes, and the less stressful it is, the closer you will become to being a Knitting Superstar!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like

• Are You Buying The Right Needles For Your Project?
• How Your Fingers Aren't Getting In The Way - And Why That's A Shame
• Speed Up Your Knitting! Avoid These Top Ten Mistakes That Will Slow You Down

"How Your Fingers Aren't Getting In The Way - And Why That's A Shame"

Problem: Scientists have found that there are more nerve connections between the fingers and the brain than between any other parts of the body. These are the most delicate instruments available to you, yet so many knitters avoid touching their knitting at all costs! Because of this, they don’t have nearly enough control over their stitches.

Fix: Use your fingers to help put your stitches where they need to be and to stop them from falling off your needles, as I show in the video.

Many knitters are afraid that their stitches will fall off the end of their left-hand needles. Here's how to prevent that from happening.

Did you enjoy this post? You might also like

• Speed Up Your Knitting! Avoid These Top Ten Mistakes That Will Slow You Down
• Are You Buying The Right Needles For Your Project?
• Messing Up Gracefully: How To Un-Knit And Get Live Stitches Back On Your Needles

E-Book Sneak Peek: Stretchy Bind-Offs 101

I couldn't help but give you a sneak peek of my toe-up socks video e-book. My favorite technique? The stretchy, invisible, hemmed-edge of the...

Invisible Ribbed Bind-Off.

You need a stretchy bind-off so you can get your foot into your toe-up sock. Watch the complete video tutorial for binding off two toe-up socks.... and go forth and bind off!

And to accompany your binding-off, here's an illustration that has proved to be really helpful for some of my students.

Invisible Ribbed Bind-off Illustration-2 -

Technique By Special Request: Switching to a New Set of Needles on Magic Loop

Thanks, Myrna, for requesting a special video on the KNITFreedom Facebook page!

Myrna's question: "I want to know how to change needles in the middle of a project. For instance, I started with a circular needle that is too short and I need to change to a longer one."

So, Myrna and everyone else, this is what to do (PS - it's very easy)...

You can do this if you've got a project on DPNs 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. Enjoy!

Mistake #8 - Letting Stitches Lag On Your Left-Hand Needle

Problem: Not advancing the stitches on your left-hand needle makes you work harder and harder to get into those stitches. Yet many people do it, because they are afraid their stitches will pop off if they get too close to the edge.

Fix: Get in the habit of pushing the stitches up onto the tip of your left-hand needle as you knit. Also see the video for Tip #6, Using Your Fingers To Help You (coming up in a few weeks), to solve this problem.

Please remember to comment if you have any questions or if there's a video you'd like to see. Stay tuned for Tip #7 - Not Using the Right Tools for the Job!

Formstack - Online Form Builder

Mistake #9 - Scrunching Your Stitches Up On Your Right-Hand Needle

Problem: If you do this, you may notice ten-twenty new stitches stacking up on the tip of your right-hand needle, in front of your fingers. This can slow you down, as your fingers are nowhere near the tips of your needles, helping you knit. Knitters who do this also tend to slow down for fear of losing stitches off the tips of the needles.

Fix: Every time you notice this happening, simply move your right hand up the needle, massaging your new stitches evenly down along the length of the needle, and place your fingers over the stitches.

Please remember to comment if you have any questions or if there's a video you'd like to see. Stay tuned for Tip #8 - Letting Stitches Lag On Your Left-Hand Needle!

Top Ten Mistakes Knitters Make that Slow Down Their Knitting (and How to Fix Them)

Are you making one of these classic mistakes? Don’t worry, almost everybody does. That’s why they made this top-ten list. Just read through and watch the videos to see if you are making your knitting experience harder than it should be - and what to do about it.

And just so you know, I’m not perfect, either. My top knitting mistake didn’t make it to the top ten, because it doesn’t really slow me down, per se, but it’s caused me a lot of frustration. I’ve been working on it, and I’m happy to say it doesn’t affect me now as much as it used to.

It’s that I would knit things out of colors that look bad on me. I used to pick a lot of pale, delicate colors, because they looked so good on models and in knitting magazines. Unfortunately, they make me look pasty and bland! So now I try to stick to deep, rich colors and bright jewel tones, no matter how good that sand-colored cardigan looks.

So, counting down from #10, your top mistakes and how to fix them are:

#10 Not Pushing Your Needle-Tips Far Enough Through Your Stitches

Problem: I see so many knitters doing this - they just barely push the tips of their needles through the stitches, and as a consequence, have to go really slowly and carefully to make sure that the stitches don’t fall off.

Fix: Easy! Push your needles all the way into your stitches, like I show in the video. Pair this fix with Tip #6, Using Your Fingers To Help You (coming up in a few weeks), and you should be golden.

This video tutorial is part of a popular new e-book called "Knit Faster!" Speed Up Your Knitting By Avoiding These Ten Mistakes. Click here to learn what they are and how you can fix them!