circular knitting

[jennii]

hello! i am a new knitter and would like to start a very simple afghan. the instructions say to use a circular needle. my question is when doing something flat do you just keep going back and forth like you do with straight needles? thanks.

[JessicaSant]

yeah -- you just keep flipping the needles over, just like you would on straight needles.

The main advantage of doing wide pieces on a circular needle is that you don't need 2 REALLY LONG straight needles, you just need 1 kinda-long circular needle and the work rests on the big wire in the middle.

Does that make sense?

Good luck!

(PS -- be warned: once you start using circulars, you'll get addicted. I don't buy straight needles anymore)

[jennii]

:D thanks!

[brendajos]

yup yup...i learned how to knit on circs and i love them. i haven't done any knitting in the round yet...just flat. i do have some flex shaft needles and i like them too because the shaft is the same size but what i like about the circs is that when i drop one i don't have to figure out where it rolled off to...