The Perils of Circular Knitting (and too long a cable) part II - SUCCESS!

 

"It might not look like much sweetheart, but it's got it where it counts!"

Yeah OK, paraphasing Han Solo in Star Wars when you're writing a follow-up article about knitting on circular needles might not be the smoothest move ever, and this photo is probably deceptively unimpressive but my quest to work out how to knit on circular needles took a new (non) twist. 

So far I've talked about the technique of "The Magic Loop" and linked in a previous post to a rather complicated article about how to divide your stitches in half on a circular needle, pull out a loop of the needle cord, and then effectively knit in 'two halves'. For those of you who remember way way back during the whole loom band craze, it's a very similar technique to the method used to make loom band 'tubes' on two forks. 

So I set myself a challenge. What was the smallest number of stitches I could use on my circular needle to knit a seamless tube, a RIBBED seamless tube at that. 

The simple answer was 10 stitches (8 was too fiddly for my gorilla fingers, 6 would be pushing it!) - With 10 I swiftly realised that the technique I linked to yesterday wasn't as complicated as it sounds, and basically all you're doing each time you alternate between each 'half' of the knit is to just pull half the stitches down the working needle, pull the other half up the 'pick' needle (the one you're picking stitches from) and knit with your working yarn as close to the row of stitches you're working as possible (to avoid huge gaping holes in your work). 

I had a couple of goes with a piece of scrap yarn (always a good way to learn if you're trying out new techniques as a beginner) and soon got used to the two trickiest parts of this: 

1) Linking your 'loop' together initially (this is done by 'slipping' a stitch off the working yarn needle onto the 'pick' needle, then beginning your knit as normal

2) Moving the stitches around the loop to continuously knit. 

Knitting a ribbed stitch is tricky because you have to make sure you're knitting or purling on top of the right type of stitch, but that's something seasoned knitters know off by heart. As you knit, you start to build up a French Knitting-like 'tube' that's also a bit like knitting an iCord. Such a great technique and finally I feel like I've solved the riddle of how to use those ungainly long circular needles I own without ending up in a colossal mess! Next task - try and knit a seamless beanie using this method!