Magic Loop or DPN, That is the Question

Going Round In Circles

When Mom knitted hats and socks — which are usually knitted in the round — she used double-pointed needles (dpns). Sometimes they came in a set of four, other times in a set of five. For a set of n needles, you divided the stitches evenly over n-1 needles and used the last needle as the needle you were knitting onto. As the stitches moved from one of the stitch-holding needles to the working needle, the stitch-holding needle became free. Now that needle was used to work the next needle's worth of stitches, and so on.

(Results for "double pointed needles" on YouTube.)

When I knitted Donovan B. Bear his first hand-knit sweater (an Irish Fisherman style sweater, done traditionally from the neck down), I found it difficult to work a teddy-bear-sized sleeve in the round over those four or five needles. The stitches would become stretched, and the long ends of the needles got in the way of the work. I ended up having to use six or eight needles to work the small, narrow sleeves.

Magic Loop

Magic Loop is a circular-needle technique that, for many people, replaces double-pointed needles. Instead of rotating through free and stitch-holding needles, one uses a single, long-cable circular needle, keeps a few stitches on the needles but leaves most on the cable, and pulls out the cable between stitches to create a comfortable knitting space. YouTube demonstrations show this method working with as few as four stitches.

(Results for "Magic Loop" on YouTube.)

The biggest advantage to Magic Loop, as far as I can tell, is that it's easier to pack up your knitting and go: just slide all your stitches onto the cable, and slide them back onto the needles when you are ready to pick up again. (This is also one of the reasons circular and flexible needles are becoming popular for flat knitting: tip protectors can come off, allowing stitches to fall off a loaded needle, and one can't always complete a row or round when knitting on a train or bus, or at a Ravelry group meeting.) With double-pointed needles, there's a much greater chance your work will slide off a needle and require you to back-track.

Advantages to Magic Loop

• Today, it's a lot easier to find circular knitting needles in a given size than it is to find dpns
• The ends of non-active double-pointed needles can get in the way working with your active needles
• Unless they come with an organizing sleeve, it's harder to keep a set of dpns together — and when they come apart, you need a needle size gauge to be able to figure out what size a needle is, or to put together a set from all of the random dpns in the bottom of your needle drawer. (That said, many circular needles don't have the size printed on them, either, and if you lose their packaging...)

Despite those advantages, for the most part I hate Magic Loop. 

Advantages to Double-Pointed Needles

• I feel that Magic Loop distorts my knitting and forces a looser knit, especially on the fine yarns (such as sock yarns) for which it is usually used.
• I feel like I'm spending all my time slipping stitches onto and off of the needles and cables, rather than actually knitting
• Slipping the cable loop out between small, tight stitches aggravates the tendinitis in my hands (although part of that might be a stiffer-than-ideal cable)
• If I need to slip out the cable loop where it meets the needle, or bend the cable at that join, I fear that the stress on the connection will lead to needle failure

It Depends on You, and on the Project

Because I was moving between (and trying out) various needle sizes (and the yarn kept sliding off my dpns), I ended up doing my fisherman's rib cap using Magic Loop and and interchangeable needles. On the bulky yarn, it wasn't too bad. But right now, I'm working on some handwarmers, and Magic Loop has been a Magic Pain. Switching back to dpns is saving the project.