How to use circular knitting needles

A circular needle is two short needle tips joined by a flexible cable. It knits flat exactly like straight needles, and it knits in the round to make tubes: hats, sleeves, cowls, the body of a sweater.

Most knitters end up using circulars for nearly everything, including flat pieces, because the cable holds the weight of the fabric in your lap instead of on your wrists.

Knitting flat on circulars

Nothing changes. Cast on, knit across to the end, turn the work around, knit back. The stitches slide onto the cable while you work and you ignore the fact that the needle is joined. Any pattern written for straight needles works unmodified.

Knitting in the round

Here you cast on, then join the last stitch to the first so you're knitting a spiral. You never turn the work. The right side always faces you, which means stockinette in the round is every stitch knit, no purling at all.

1. 1Cast the required number of stitches onto the circular needle.
2. 2Lay the needle down and check that the cast-on edge runs along the bottom of the cable with no stitch flipped over it. Look along the whole length. This is the one step people skip.
3. 3Slide the stitches so the first cast-on stitch sits at the tip of the left needle and the last sits at the tip of the right.
4. 4Place a stitch marker on the right needle tip to mark the start of the round.
5. 5Knit the first stitch off the left needle. That stitch is now joined to the last one, closing the circle.
6. 6Keep knitting. When you reach the marker, slip it across and start the next round.

Magic loop, for small tubes

A 16-inch circular won't go around a sock or a sleeve cuff. Magic loop solves that with one long cable, 32 or 40 inches, folded to take up the slack.

1. 1Cast on and slide all stitches onto the cable.
2. 2Find the middle of your stitches and pull a loop of bare cable out at that point, splitting the stitches into two equal halves.
3. 3Slide each half onto its own needle tip. Half the stitches sit on the front tip, half on the back.
4. 4Pull the back tip out to the right so its stitches drop onto the cable, and knit the front half with it.
5. 5Rotate the work, re-split, and knit the other half. Each pair of passes is one round.

The alternative is double-pointed needles, which are four or five short straight needles holding the stitches in a triangle or square. DPNs are faster once learned but leave visible ladders at the corners more readily than magic loop does.

Which cable length

The cast-on has to reach comfortably around the cable without stretching. Buy the length that matches the project circumference, not the length that seems generally useful.

When not to use circulars

• Very short flat rows, like a 12-stitch swatch. The stitches bunch at the tips and fight you. Straights are easier.
• Entrelac and some short-row shawls where you constantly turn tiny sections. The cable gets in the way.
• Learning to purl. Some people find the extra weight distracting on the first few rows. Not a real limitation, just a comfort thing.

Everything else is fair game, including the flat scarf you'd assume needs straight needles.