It is completely up to you!

The challenge when knitting items with small circumferences is how to move stitches around easily. For hundreds of years this problem was solved by using DPNs. By being able to spread the stitches around in four places, you could for a rough circle even small enough for thumb and finger openings. 

Then Sarah Hauschka “unvented” using one long, circular needle to knit tiny circumferences and the knitting world went crazy!!

(photo from Raverly project by linnakat)

One method is not better than another. As Elizabeth Zimmermann said, “Knitter’s choice”. Besides what feels most comfortable to you, you need to take into account the pattern you are knitting. I’ve gone back to DPNs for the majority of my sock knitting. No reason other than I like the feeling. But, I am going to use Magic Loop for my Viper Pilot Socks because of the design.

DPNs divide the stitches into four sections while Magic Loop has half the stitches on each section of the loop. Glenna C. has place a large pattern on the front and the back of the sock leg. She has given instructions for spreading the stitches over three DPNs but it seems fiddly to me. The Magic Loop method allows me to have a full repeat on the “front” and on the “back” loop sections. The second benefit is that by being able to work a complete segment, I will be able to see how I’m doing – have I made any mistakes or gotten off the pattern somehow.

Curious about learning a new method of knitting in the round?  Check out our tutorials to get started:

Knitting in the Round Tutorial