Magic Loop

[Crycket]

I love magic loop. My favorite way to knit socks is toe up using ML. I have also used it for sweater sleeves, hats and mittens.

I am not sure how I feel about toe up yet...I think I still like top down...but then...I am still on my first toe up ML project...

But I think I like the no pointy needles every where aspect of it...

And also...the not having to search for the working needle aspect!

and definatly better when you are doing a charted pattern...you can see more area on the sock!

[kellyh57]

I'm doing my first ML too. I don't mind DPNs that bad, but like Crycket, I don't miss the pointy needles everywhere. Am I the only one who ever pulls out the wrong one with DPNs? I don't know how many times I think I have my empty/working needle and pull out the needle with the stitches! What a klutz!

[knittingymnast]

I actually haven't tried it yet. Still waiting for that confidence to come...

[hookedonknitting]

I've just started to try it and I am having the same issue...I think I might try the dpn's instead...

[dairywife]

I have used ML to make two drawstring bags. I have never worked on DPN's but I do love the ML. I had no trouble with it. My next project is a pair of socks. I am very excited.

[allynealy]

Hm, I used to love it.
But somehow I end up with way too tight first stitches on the other half of the knitting, and it's a hard fight to try and get those stitches up the needle. Any suggestions?

I am a newbie, but I think the first couple of rows are rough and get stuck easily. Once you get going it goes much smoother, though.
I tried knitting a sock yarn on needles too big and that did NOT work, so make sure your needles are the right size. If it doesn't get better by an inch into the project, you might need to switch to a smaller needle.

[xenniferx]

There is a book called 2 at a Time Socks that gives the general idea and has tons of cute sock patterns.

><

[pinktoque]

I started a basic sock via Magic Loop and fell in love with how simple it was. My only issue is that I just can't seem to wrap my head around a pattern that's written for DPN when I want to use Magic Loop to make the sock. It should be easy, right? I went in search of a pattern that was written for the Magic Loop method, even though I know that I could use any sock pattern and do it Magic Loop style. Any tips or tricks on getting my head wrapped around this concept?

I haven't even tried doing two at once socks yet. Too scary. Though I know it shouldn't be! I guess it's because I'm learning all of these techniques visually vs. having someone in person show me.

[kellyh57]

Any pattern written for two circulars will be virtually the same as magic loop. Instead of having 2 needles, you'll have your work on one needle and the cable instead. That's what I'm doing anyway. Otherwise, 5 dpns would be easy to convert. Instead of having 4 working needles, you'll put two of them on the same needle.

[pinktoque]

I'm just not very confident that I understand the basic sock construction enough to think of it in a 2 dimensional way (2 needles, magic loop style) vs. having the socks divided onto 3 or 4 DPNs. See, when I'm reading a pattern meant to be done on DPNs, it'll get really specific about how to divide stitches onto 3 various needles and what to do with each of them -- I can't seem to wrap my head around the idea of how to do this with only two needles when I'm doing magic loop.

As an example question, if I'm using two needles magic loop style and it's time to do the heel, since I should already have half of the stitches on one side (and the other half on the other needle) I don't really need to shuffle stitches around -- I just work the heel on one side only and leave the other stitches be, right? That seems simple enough, but then most instructions for DPNs get really specific after that point about "pick up x stitches on needle 1, x stitches on needle 2, x stitches on needle 3" and since I'm such a sock-knitting noob, if I don't follow the instructions to the letter I get confused. With magic loop I'd only have 2 needles to work with so I'm not sure how to divide the stitches up back on the two needles to keep going properly after the heel. I'm sure I'm making much more of this than it is.

Someone tell me one simple sentence to make this click. Like, "Shut up and just do it." or "Suck it up and try it, you just need to keep in mind blah blah blah."

lol