The Magic Circle and it’s many doable forms

Magic circles are an integral part of crocheting. You need them for amigurumi, hats, granny squares. You’re bound to run into a pattern that calls for a magic circle sooner or later, Personally, I learned how to do it from a book, and it was hard to follow. Sometimes I would do it wrong, so it would take a few tries before I got it right, I couldn’t get the yarn to catch and turn on my hook just right, so it would slip, and I’d have to try again. Even when I would watch videos on youtube of how to do a magic circle, they would show me the same method with three fingers and a cross and over and under and everything is all…weird. So, here are two (or three) way easier ways I found on the internet of how to do a magic circle.

1. This is the one that I always do. All I have to do is hold the yarn just as I’m used to holding it while I’m crocheting, then wrap it one extra time around my middle finger to make the ring, I just reach my hook inside, pull the yarn through, and chain one to make it official before you start putting in the number of foundational stitches you need. Your finger gives you a good amount of room in the circle to work with, and you can keep it there the whole time to keep you steady. When you’re done, you can pull the end and tighten up the ring just like with the other, harder method we all know and love.
2. This method is great, too. You chain three, then slip stitch into the first stitch to make your ring. You can make your stitches into the center. I like this method and how straight forward it is. You don’t have to remember how to hold the yarn differently for the times you have a pattern that calls for a magic circle and you’ve forgotten how to do it, so you must refer to youtube yet again. I found the first one first, though. It blew my fragile newbie crochet mind, so I’ve used it ever since.
3. This is one I can’t remember, but I’ll find a video on later to write about it here.

As you can see, there are a variety of different ways you can get around a magic circle. That three finger crossover trick gets a lot of people. I even thought about just not doing patterns with them. That’s silly, though. We can make magic circles. Happy crocheting, babes.