Knitting In The Round:

Two Circular Needles

An alternative way to knit items in the round

Are double-pointed needles (dpns) a pain in your backside? If so, simplify knitting items in the round with two circular needles instead.

It’s essentially the same as knitting with double-pointed needles, except you only have two needles—one is the working needle, the other is just holding stitches. As a bonus, if you use longer needles, you can knit two socks simultaneously.

You may also want to check out my Joining Yarn in the Round tutorial.

Work in the Round with Two Circular Needles: An alternative way to work in the round. Image shows a project with circular needle ends made of two different materials.
 

How to do it:

 

Basic Principle:

You’ll be working around in a circle using two circular needles of the same tip size, but only working with one at a time.

 
 
  1. Choose two needles of the same tip size, and preferable different tips (colours or materials) so you can easily tell them apart. The cords can be different lengths.

  2. Cast on stitches onto one of the needles. Move half of them to the second needle and join yarn.

  3. Handling the ends of only ONE needle at a time, work in the round. In other words, work from one end of one needle onto the the other end of the same needle. When you’ve reached the end of those stitches, switch to the second needle and repeat.

  4. To prevent “laddering”, it’s best if the first stitch on your new needle is a knit stitch. Also, after working onto a new needle, give a little tug on the working yarn after the first stitch to keep you tension tight.

 
 

Try our patterns: