Tutorial time!

Hey everyone!  I don't know if I have any readers who I don't know personally yet, but if I do I'd like to apologize for the unannounced hiatus.  I was working a job that ate my soul over the holiday season and somehow two months slipped by without my posting anything.  Sorry!  I'll try not to let it happen again.

Now that I've got that over with, it's time for a tutorial!  Today I'm going to show you how to do a crochet technique called the "magic loop" or "magic ring" (not to be confused with the knitting magic loop, which is something completely unrelated).  There's lots of pics, so I'm gonna go ahead and put the rest behind a jump.

The magic loop or magic ring is probably one of my favorite neat crochet tricks.  It's a method of starting in the round without either a hole in the center or having to stitch into the same loop who knows how many times.  You probably won't see it much in western patterns, but if you plan to make a lot of amigurumi or crochet from Japanese patterns you'll see it quite a bit so it's a useful technique to pick up.  In western patterns, it's usually referred to by one of the names I've brought up already, and in Japanese charted patterns it is represented by the hiragana character "wa" (わ) in a circle, surrounded by the symbols for the stitches you make into it (you'll see both of these in action in my next post).  It's a bit tricky to get the hang of, but once you've got it down you'll never go back to doing it the old way! (These directions assume you're right handed.  If you're left handed, there are other tutorials out there on the net that can show you how!)


 Start by wrapping the yarn around your left hand.  The tail should be to the left, and the ball end to the right.  The ball end needs to cross over the tail as illustrated in the picture.

 

Insert the hook under both strands of yarn

Catch the ball end in your hook, and pull a loop up under the tail end

 

Yarn over...

...and pull the yarn through the loop on your hook

I don't have a picture of this, but sometimes it makes it easier if you chain one more through the loop you have on your hook right now.  It's optional, though so if you don't do it, don't worry about it!

At this point, you should only have one loop on your hook.  Insert the hook back under the two strands of yarn (henceforth referred to as the foundation loop), just to the left of the chain you've started. 

YO again, and pull up another loop.  DO NOT pull this through the loop you already have on your hook-you should have two loops on your hook after this step, just like you would for single crochet.

YO again WITHOUT inserting your hook through the foundation loop on your fingers, and pull through the two loops on your hook.  Congratulations, you've just made your first SC stitch!

Continue inserting your hook through the foundation ring, pulling up a loop, and then pulling a loop through both loops on your hook until you have the number of SC called for in your pattern. (I've got nine here, but it will vary from pattern to pattern how many you need)

At this point, pull on the tail end of your yarn.  If you've done everything right, your foundation loop should start getting smaller.

When your stitches have doubled back on themselves, insert the hook in the first stitch you made.

Pull a loop through both the stitch and the loop on your hook to join, and pull on the tail end until the hole in the middle has completely closed.  You're now ready to continue on with your pattern!

Any time a pattern calls for you to chain two and stitch X times into the first chain, you can substitute this technique.  Just stitch X times into your foundation loop rather than into into a chain.  I've only demonstrated how to do it with single crochet, but you can also use double or triple or any other stitch you want.  After you've made that first loop on your hook (where I say you can optionally chain one more in this tutorial), simply chain the same number of stitches you would for a turning chain (two for HDC, three for DC, four for TC, etc) and YO the appropriate number of times before inserting your hook back under the foundation loop.

Hopefully this explanation of Magic Loop or Magic Circle was clear enough!  If not, watch this space-I'm hoping to add a video tutorial in the next few days.