Knitting in the Round: How to Join Without a Twist

Lay your cast on stitches along the needle with all the bumps facing the same way, usually inward, before you knit the first stitch. That is the whole secret to joining without a twist. To close the gap at the join, swap the first and last stitch, or cast on one extra stitch and knit it together with the first.

By the Knit&Note team

Most of the knitting worth wearing happens in the round. Hats, socks, mittens, sleeves, whole sweaters knit from the top down: all of it is one long spiral with no seams to sew afterwards. Once you have knit a hat in the round, flat knitting starts to feel like extra homework.

The technique itself is almost disappointingly simple. You knit exactly as you always do. The only genuinely risky moment is the join, the point where you connect the last cast on stitch to the first and commit to the circle. Get that right and the rest is just knitting.

The twist, and how to avoid it

Here is the one mistake that cannot be fixed later: joining with a twist. If your cast on spirals around the needle when you join, you are not knitting a tube, you are knitting a Möbius strip. There is no rescue. You rip it all out.

Avoiding it takes ten seconds:

After casting on, lay the needle on a table.
Arrange the stitches so the cast on edge, the little row of bumps, faces the same direction all the way around. Inward is the convention.
Check the full circle once more. On a long cable, run your fingers along it.
Only then knit the first stitch.

Check again after round one. A twist is still catchable there if you are willing to tink back one round. By round three it is a decision you live with, or a restart.

Joining without a gap

If you simply start knitting, the join works, but you often get a small loose gap between the first and last stitch. Three easy fixes, pick one:

Swap the stitches. Slip the first cast on stitch to the right needle, lift the last cast on stitch over it onto the left needle, and start knitting. The two stitches trade places and lock the circle closed.
Knit the extra stitch together. Cast on one stitch more than the pattern says. Slip that extra stitch to the left needle and knit it together with the first stitch. Snug, tidy, and the stitch count comes out right.
Just knit, and use the tail. Start knitting and ignore the gap. Afterwards, close it from the inside with the cast on tail. Honest and invisible.

Whichever you choose, place a stitch marker on the needle before the first stitch. That marker is the beginning of your round, and future you will lean on it constantly.

Circular needles or double pointed needles?

Circular needles are two tips joined by a flexible cable, and they are the default for almost everything. Match the cable length to the project: around 40 cm for hats, 60 to 80 cm for sweater bodies. The rule is that the cable must be shorter than the circumference of your knitting, otherwise the stitches cannot reach around.

Double pointed needles, DPNs, come in sets of five and handle the small stuff: sock cuffs, mitten tops, sleeve ends, the crown of a hat where a 40 cm cable becomes too long. You divide the stitches over three or four needles and knit with the spare. They look alarming. They are not. You only ever knit with two needles at a time; the rest just hold stitches.

Many knitters use both in one project: a hat starts on a short circular and finishes on DPNs as the crown decreases shrink the round.

Magic loop, briefly

Magic loop lets you knit tiny circumferences on one long circular needle, 80 cm or more, by pulling the spare cable out in a loop between two halves of the stitches. No DPNs needed, nothing to drop on the bus. It is a technique worth learning the day you knit your first sock, and a video teaches it faster than text can. One warning: the join is easier to twist with magic loop, because the cast on is folded in half. Check twice before you join.

In the Knit&Note app

In the Knit&Note reader, the round counter sits right next to your pattern, so "knit 14 rounds" never turns into "was that 12 or 13?". Technique words like magic loop are tappable in the pattern text, with a short explanation and video, so you can learn them exactly when a pattern demands them.

The first rounds

The first two or three rounds of a project in the round are the worst ones, on any needle. The fabric is short, the stitches want to twist, nothing has weight yet. This is normal and it passes.

Knit the first round a touch firmer than usual, especially the first few stitches after the join.
Do not stop mid round this early if you can help it.
After a few rounds, hold the work up and admire the tube forming. The right side faces you, which means stockinette is nothing but knit stitches, round after round. That is the quiet luxury of knitting in the round.

FAQ

How do I know if my cast on is twisted?

Look at the cast on edge before you join: the row of bumps should face the same way around the entire needle, with no stitches spiraling over the cable. After a round or two, look at the tube itself. If the fabric makes a full corkscrew around the needle, it is twisted.

Can I fix a twisted join?

Only immediately. After exactly one round, some knitters rotate the twist out through the gap at the join. After that, no. The twist is knitted into the structure and the only fix is ripping back to the cast on.

Why is there a ladder of loose stitches up my work?

Ladders appear at the points where you move between needles, on DPNs or at the magic loop split. Tug the second stitch on each new needle firm, not just the first, and shift the split point a stitch or two every few rounds. Ladders also relax a lot with blocking.

Do I knit the right side or wrong side when working in the round?

The right side always faces you. You never turn. That is why stockinette in the round is all knit stitches, and garter stitch in the round alternates one round knit, one round purl.