Joining Stitches on a Circular Knitting Needle Into a Round
Knitting with circular needles may seem confusing if you’ve never used them before, but it’s not as difficult as it looks. Joining the stitches into a round is the hardest part, but all it takes is a careful eye and a little practice.
Once you have your gauge established and have cast on as many stitches on your circular needle as you need (making sure to double-check the gauge and the number of stitches, especially if you’re following a pattern, because who wants to have to rip out all that hard work and start over again?), you will need to make sure the stitches are not twisted.
Grasp the ends of the needle in your hands and gently stretch the needle out, so that it lies in a straight line rather than bending into its default circular position. Doing this makes it a bit easier to see the stitches, particularly if you hold the needle down against a flat surface. Often, when you’re knitting something with more than fifty stitches or so and the stitches are all bunched up, they will twist around the needle, so that the bottoms of several stitches are on the same side of the needle as the tops of some other stitches. If this is the case, get a friend or something heavy to hold down the other end of the needle while you carefully turn the stitches so that all of them line up.
You can make sure the stitches aren’t twisted without stretching the needle out so that it lies flat, but it’s harder to see all the stitches at once this way. Experienced knitters, if they aren’t paying careful attention at this stage, often find after they have joined the stitches into a round that their stitches are twisted. And unless you’re knitting a moëbius loop or feel like ripping out your work and starting again, twisted stitches should be avoided.
Once all your stitches are aligned-and you should keep a close eye on them until they’re joined in a round-take up the needle in your hands. Insert the end of the needle that the yarn attached to the skein is coming from into the top stitch at the other end of the needle and knit or purl that stitch, turning the work if need be. Your stitches are now joined into a round and you’re ready to knit!
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