Diagonal ladder

[XxavoOo]

I'm knitting a hat and am halfway through it. I'm doing it on magic loop (4mm circular needles).

To avoid ladders, before I move the sts to the free needle and continue knitting, I first transfer 2 sts, knit them, and then continue. I'm not sure it's clear, but basically I'm knitting 2 sts from the other needle before going on (like I'd do with DPNs).

But, now there's an issue: I can clearly see this line (a ladder) going up the whole work, in diagonal (following the 2 sts I moved before). It's not THAT visible, but it's deep enough to be spotted.

What do I do???

[Jan in CA]

I'm not sure there is anything you can do at this point other than start over. What I do with magic loop or 2 circs is I kind of hold the joins together with my little and ring fingers. I started doing that with DPN and it works well for me.

[XxavoOo]

I usually do that when working on DPNs, but I figured that by moving sts around ladders would disappear... I'll finish the hat and see if washing it makes it go away. If not, then I'll say that's the style

[suzeeq]

Don't 'transfer' the sts over to the other needle, just knit them right off the left needle. It may be by slipping them that stretches them a bit and creates the laddering.

[boyforpele13]

I agree with Suzeeq. The concept behind what you are doing in moving the 2 stitches is based upon altering the tension point between the needles and it's one that I've used successfully; however, if you *consistently* do those same 2 stitches, all you are doing is changing the tension point, but there's still a consistent tension point, thus, the possibility for ladders.

There are 2 things I do for this in magic loop, one is the the concept you are using, only very periodically, as in maybe once a pattern repeat (somewhere between every 4 and 10 rounds or so, give or take, a fine gauge yarn, you can get away with more, heavier yarns, make the number of rounds smaller) but like Suzeeq said, don't slip them first. When you get to the end of needle one, instead of slipping, just knit 2 or 3 stitches with the now free needle and then slide them down the cable so those 3 stitches are now at the end of needle 1 and then continue as normal. Just don't do it every round, you want to just "throw off" the tension point periodically.

The other thing I do, which has become just habit for me no matter what kind of in the round knitting I'm doing, is tugging at the 2nd stitch of each needle. So you knit 1 normally, insert the needle into the next stitch, but before wrapping/picking, give the working yarn a good pull. This has pretty much eliminated the need for changing the stitches around for me, except in straight stockinette with unforgiving yarn maybe.