Knitting in the round

Having given all my circular knitting needles away years ago, because I just didn't think I was going to use them any more, I have begun to replace them again. I learnt to knit on circular needles when i was at art college: there was a Norwegian student on my course, and she taught a few of us. Having gone back to it, I hear that there is now a new technigue, magic loop knitting. has anyone tried it? I've watched a Youtube clip which was quite difficult to follow - I would be interested to know if anyone has heard of it or perfected it!!

I have heard of it Dandelion but didn't really understand what it was about.  I got the impression it was to do with having a 'seamless' join but when you knit in the round, whether on 4 needles or  circular  needles that's what you get anyway.  

I wonder if some stuff has got lost over the years - currently getting back into sewing, & looking to see what's new in the intervening years, I'm finding quite a lot of excitement about techniques that I was taught at school and that what I consider to be my basic sewing skills are now regarded as 'couture'.

I think the idea of magic loop knitting is that you can make a seamless 'tube' of knitting (as you do with four needles or a circular needle, as you said P), but you can make a tube of a very small diameter (such as the cuff for a child's glove) on a long circular needle. The benefit would be that you don't need to buy circular needles of different lengths, but could use the same long needle even for small items.
I'll find half an hour sometime when I'm on my own (which is a rarity...) and sit down and watch the youtube clip with needles and wool in hand, and try and fathom it out. It'll be good for my brain ('use it or lose it'...)

I just had another look too and was going to do the same i.e. with needles in hand. I'm sure I've used circular needles in the past for things that don't need the whole length of cable (like necks) without thinking about it but I've not done anything very small like cuffs or socks.

I've dug up this thread because I am indeed magic loop knitting.
I decided to take the plunge and buy a set of Knit Pro interchangeable needles (they screw on to different length cables). I keep talking to people in knitting shops who say how wonderful they are especially if you have arthritic hands (which I don't but I do have carpal tunnel and tendonitis)
I found an interesting Norwegian knitting site called Drops Design with hundreds of free translated patterns, many knitted in the round and set to with a straightforward sweater knitted in the round and top down - a completely new departure for me. I realised that I would need to master magic loop because the circumference of the knitting was going to keep changing and the cable wouldn't necessarily be the right length. I found a tutorial with photographs which was much easier to follow than videos and its so easy. I can see me knitting a lot more like this and I think I will stick with cables for flat knitting too.
I'm on the kindle at the mo but will put on some links for any interested knitters when I get on the computer.

It's something I'd like to get my head around (but I need some time to do it!!)

Here are some links - it will be a miracle if they all work properly!

These are the excellent interchangeable needles that I got
Knit Pro needles

This is the tutorial that finally made me understand how to do magic loop
Magic Loop Tutorial

Here is the Drops Design website if anyone is interested
Drops Design

and here is the start of my top down, in the round sweater. I like the idea of having no sewing up at the end. You can see one end of the 'magic loop'

Thank you - it looks like one of those activities which you learn more by actually trying it out. When I read a description my brain wouldn't take it all in!

I'm a knitter too. That look really interesting, Ploshkin. I like knitting in the round and have umpteen pairs of gloves and three pairs of socks. Last Autumn I bought a pattern online for a zip up cardi and discovered when it arrived that it was knitted on a circular needle. Very interesting to knit and quite challenging as it was a US pattern and I had to get my head round the terminology as well. It was brilliant having no seams to sew!
It also had an interesting sort-of cable pattern up the sleeves and the sides and up the yoke giving a raglan sleeve effect. Not that easy to photograph.

That looks gorgeous, Flo. I loathe knitting, unfortunately, but do crochet from time to time. I've used the Drops website before for some good crochet patterns.

Thank you Freebird. It's very cosy and soft. I may knit another one sometime. Depends how that yarn hand-washes, though.
Crochet's good. I only know a few basics and am not very good at keeping it even.

Ooh, love the detail. I'm keen on the idea of no sewing up - I hate doing it.
Freebird, if you crochet have you seen the fabulous birds that Alan Dart designs?

I know it's still summer - well, it is today - but I am getting prepared for the next season and, to that end, have bought a set of Knit Pro needles that Ploshkin mentioned. They are gorgeous, I could just hold them and not bother to knit for a while!!

I need to look at the tutorial sometime as I've never figured out how to knit small circles (spirals if we're being strictly accurate!) on a circular needle without stretching the knitting very badly.

Roll on knitting season!

The tutorial in photos is very good. Thanks for the link, Ploshkin. I knitted a little experimental tube and it only took a couple of rounds to get into the swing of it.

Have had another go at knitting in the round. Right round this time. It's a Drops pattern, translated from Norwegian, with several charts to follow. Sleeves and body knitted separately up to armpits then a couple of weird rows to join them all together - nearly 400 sts on the needles! No seams at all but 52 ends to weave in because of the pattern (yes, I counted!!)

Ooh, that's nice.  I like drops patterns (if you ignore the weird stuff).  It's many years since I've knitted a Shetland type pattern.   I love the colours.
I've taken to knitting in the round as much as I can as I hate sewing up.  I finished a sweater recently.  I just knitted the front and back as one then split at the armholes.  I cast off the front and back shoulders together so there were no shoulder seams.  I knitted the sleeves in the round too so the only sewing up was setting in the sleeves.  I'm currently doing a cardigan with the fronts and back as one piece.
I presume you are getting on well with your interchangeable needles.  I love mine.  I did a tension swatch on long needles and found that they made my hands ache.

Thank you, Ploshers-old-chum. The pattern on the website is in red with light brown and off-white patterns. Much as I love red, it doesn't do a lot for me so I substituted the colours you see above.

I love my interchangeable needles. Did wonder if I needed a longer cable when I had nearly 400 stitches to deal with but managed with what I had. I like the shortness of the needles and the fact that the weight of the work sits in your lap and doesn't hang heavy on the ends of long needles. I haven't used long needles since I bought these but guess that my arthritic-y bases of thumbs would not be too happy if I did.

Do we get a piccy of your latest creations?
Do I take it that you adapted a pattern to turn it into a roundy-roundy one?

Beautiful jumper FloBear!

That's quite an achievement I think. I'm sure I've said that my mother used to be a skilled knitter (before Alzheimers robbed her of that too). She could knit on autopilot, without looking, whilst watching TV. Fisherman's Arran was more her style. But she too disliked the sewing up, so experimented with knitting in the round. But to make a whole jumper with no seams is amazing. Presumably you got the tricky joining on of the sleeves over with before the patterned bit starts ! I imagine there is a comfort advantage of not having seams too.

Thank you folks. I'm pleased with the result.
You're right, CH, the pattern happened after the joining business.

Flobear wrote:Do we get a piccy of your latest creations?
Do I take it that you adapted a pattern to turn it into a roundy-roundy one?

I realised that I never put a piccy of my in the round, top down sweater that I kicked off this thread with so here it is.  The blue one is the standard pattern that I adapted to knit in the round.  I got a bit confused switching between the back and the front parts of the pattern but the fact that I found I was not doing them both the same size didn't help.  I had to incorporate some shaping at the waist that would have been on the edges on separate pieces but that was no problem.

By the way, I too have arthriticky thumb base joints.  I find I can knit with the short needles without it bothering me.

Whilst on the subject of knitting in the round and traditional Fairisle or Shetland knitting I recently came across 'steeking'.  I really don't know why I've never heard of it before as many years ago I did a lot of traditional knitting.  A steek is used to make an opening in tubular knitting to insert sleeves, form a neck opening or open up the tube completely to make a cardigan.  It involves cutting the knitting, reinforcing the edges then knitting on whatever bit you need.
The knitters amongst you may find this interesting over a cuppa.

(There is a link under the 'may find this interesting' in case, like me you don't notice the green print.)

Lovely jumpers. Ploshkin.
When I knitted mine I thought it could do with a little shaping at the waist, as my cardi last year had. It looks a bit 'straight up and down'-y and would be more flattering if it were woman-shaped, like me

I will have a look at 'steeking' next time I sit down with a cuppa.

I'm so jealous! I love knitted things but hate knitting. All of those jumpers look fab.

Thanks to the 'Beast from the East' and storm Emma, my woolly pulli has had plenty of use. It even has a matching hat!