Hints, tips and 'how to'

I get a real kick out of sharing the hints and tips I've picked up along the way with others. If I've found a useful resource, such as a YouTube video, that I can recommend, I link to that as well, as sometimes it can take a long time to find one that is really clear, and is the easiest way to do something.

Crochet

Magic Loop: if you are crocheting something in rounds (making a mat, starting a hat from the crown, or making granny squares, for example), the pattern may tell you to chain so many and join in a circle. That's fine if you want a little hole in the middle or don't mind trying to squeeze a lot of stitches into a small space, but an alternative is a magic loop (or magic circle). This starts big but you make it smaller after you've done all the stitches for the first round but before you close the round. There are lots of instructional videos out there, but they all make it seem (to me, anyway) more complicated than it needs to be. The simplest I've found is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_CS3TUADYg. There are plenty of other videos, but most seem to want you to wrap the yarn round your fingers in a particular way, whereas that's much less important than the principle of the loop itself. 

Hand-knitting

Judy's Magic Cast-on: If you are knitting something 'in the round' from the bottom up and don't want a ridge where you cast-on (both sides of the knitting appearing to continue seamlessly from the other side), try this cast-on. It's actually really easy once you get into the rythm of it, although it feels a little strange to start off. The best tutorial I have found is this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV9UaFgZ6Q0, which uses a circular needle (with a cord). I tried it using double-pointed needles (DPNs) and although the cast-on was easy enough, knitting the first row was very difficult until I distributed the stitches over more DPNs.