Working in the round tutorial
HOW TO WORK IN THE ROUND
Magic double ring
This is a wonderful trick that will allow you to form a ring to start working in rounds without the yarn ever slipping out.
1.
Wrap the yarn twice around 2 fingers on your left (or non-dominant) hand.
2.
Holding that yarn in place, remove your fingers, and make a first ch (or two if working in dc) – this one does not count towards your required number of stitches for this round, it just helps get it started.
3.
Continue to sc or dc as required by the pattern.
4.
Before doing a sl st between the last and first stitch, you need to close the ring. Notice how you now have two strands of yarn between these stitches plus a loose end. Pull on the back strand, which causes the front strand to shrink and close up the ring. Now pull on the loose end to shrink the back strand, which secures the ring – if you pulled on the front strand first, this step will not work. Unfortunately there is no other way to fix this than to start again, making sure you keep your strands in order!
5.
You can now do a sl st between the last sc/dc and the first. Your ring is complete, and you can move on to Round 2!
6.
To make your ring extra secure, and to get that pesky loose end out of the way, carry it over to the next round and work your stitches over it to hide it.
Finishing and starting a round
1.
To finish a round, join the last stitch with the first stitch of that same round with a sl st. Ch1 for a row of sc, or ch2 for a row of dc. These do not count towards the final stitch count.
2.
The first stitch of the next row will go into the same stitch in which you did a sl st and chain. This is very important to keep your seam from migrating, and causing your rounds to shift. You might also find it helpful to mark this first stitch with a safety pin so you can keep track of it, and move it up with each new round.
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