Monday, April 20, 2009

The Magic Loop - I Learned Something New Today



In an effort to keep my brain pan oiled, I try to learn something new everyday. My Grannie Virginia, had a piece of hand lettered paper with the words "Learn Something New Every Day" stuck in her dresser mirror. I have her mirror (and her piece of paper, somewhere) with a piece of my own paper with those words written on it stuck into the frame. These are words I can live with on a daily basis. It may help to stave off Old Timer's and it certainly can't hurt to learn something new.

To that end, I taught myself to do the Magic Loop. This is a method of knitting in the round with a set of needles attached by a cable as opposed to knitting in the round with a set of 4 or 5 double pointed needles. I have been wanting to try this method since I heard about. So, with the arrival of Erin's copy of How to Knit Socks, Three Methods made Easy, I thought I would give it a whirl. Here is a picture of my first effort at Magic Loop.



Erin has also learned something new and has taught herself how to knit in the round on DPNs. She is trying out the Harris Tweed Socks also in the book mentioned earlier. Below is a picture of her first attempt at knitting with more than two needles at a time. Woot for her! She IS the "River" of Knitting.

5 comments:

IsDihara said...

Ooh! Congratulations on learning the Magic Loop technique! It is one I want to learn (one step at a time, one step at a time)

Would love to hear your thoughts on your new sock knitting book also, as I'm looking for a book on sock knitting. Trying to teach myself!

And thanks for your lovely comment on my Puddle Jumpin' blog post today. So glad you're still giving my humble blog a glance every now and then. I will be posting a photo of my attempts at knitting a toddler sock in the next day or so.

SO glad to have heard from you!

Margi said...

Big WOO HOO for both of you Leslie. I have tried magic loop and just don't get it, always revert back to my DPNs! I think for me it's more of a patience or lack there of thing. tee hee
hugs
margi

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

I guess I am going to be vexed with Old Timers, as the longer I looked at Magic Loop the more I wanted to learn on two circulars, which I did finally, mostly teaching myself.
Do you find this easy? I kept thinking on the fine yarn I knit I would have ladders where the slip and pull happened.
So you'll be old, wise and active and I'll be drooling and being hand fed pablum..... ;)

Leslie said...

Anne wrote:
Do you find this easy? I kept thinking on the fine yarn I knit I would have ladders where the slip and pull happened.

I write:
Actually it was a LOT easier than I expected or else these instructions are really good.

Caveat: we'll see when I get to the heel though how good they really are.

I would certainly recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn any of the methods. Erin taught herself DPNs from it and I will try the 2 circs next as those instructions are in the book as well.

Leslie said...

Chris wrote: I have been knitting a long time, but only learned to knit socks about 2 1/2 years ago on dpn's With a friend's encouragement and the help of you tube, I learned Magic loop a few months ago and will never go back to dpn's. I taught myself to knit socks. Always willing to learn something new. Yay for you.

Sorry for the cut and paste job, apparently I reject Chris' comment instead of publishing it and I cannot figure out how to fix it, sigh.