Circular Knitting

One of the most frequent questions we get at Fibers is: How do you use circular needles? There seems to be an air of mystery about them that intimidates a lot of new knitters and I want to change that because with circulars you can do cool things and tackle big projects.

Circular needles are used to knit a tube, and of course that tube can become a hat, the body or sleeve of a sweater, a tea cozy or a sock. Because you are knitting "in the round," your garment is finishing itself as you knit! This means there are no seams to sew!

But circulars are also perfect for managing large items -- shawls, afghans, even scarves that are knit lengthwise.

When used to knit a tube, circular needles allow you to join the yarn and keep knitting in a circle. When you get to the end of the round, you just keep knitting, and because you never turn the work, you're always knitting on the outside. This means you can get stockinette or flat knitting without purling.

When they're used to make items with loads of stitches, the directions often say to turn the piece and work back. This means that you just switch the needles to the opposite hands, as you would do with straight needles, and now, you work on the other side of the piece, just as you normally do. The only reason you're using the circular needles is to accomodate a very large number of stitches -- otherwise, it's just like using 2 straight needles. To get stockinette stitch, you have knit on one side and purl on the other.