crochet magic circle

[knittedlady]

What is the magic circle?

[Kaleigh]

It's a crochet method of joining in the round. We have a video tutorial for it so you can see how it's done - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9x0hWfP69s

[knittedlady]

Thanks for the help!

[karenarp]

Just so you know, you don't have to cinch the circle tight when closing it. Like for clue 2, I wanted it to stay open, so I put my thumb in the hole, pulled tight around thumb, put my tail through the circle several times till it ended. Now I have a nice open circle that started with the magic circle. CAL clue 1 and 3 I choose to close them tightly. Using the magic circle gives you more options once your motif is completed in my opinion, so you can make it neat.

[dogfoster]

Like Karen said, you do not have to close the circle tightly. I usually do not begin to tighten it until I have done a few rows so it really makes the pattern more adjustable to compensate for tendency to cup in the middle.
Also depending on how many stitches you are going to have to put in the first row, you may choose to make the circle bigger. For example, if it called for 12 stitches, I would wrap it around two fingers. Or if it is thicker yarn.
You should try a few to get the hang of it. If you get the end tangled around around the circle, it may be difficult to evenly tighten the circle. I usually turn the whole thing upside down with that end facing me and put it on a flat area, and gently ease it through, I never tug on it.
Hope you like this method, I think they should begin all the patterns worked in round using this method.