Learn the invisible circular cast on in six easy steps!

This cast-on method is ideal for tubular bags, top-down hats or teacosies, or knitting flat circles. Designer Jane Burns used this technique to create a professional finish on her brilliant Miffy doll pattern. It’s similar to the idea of a magic ring in crochet and you can tighten the ring to close the starting hole completely. Here’s how you do it!

Step 1
Make a loop with the working yarn in front and going to the left, and the tail going behind and going to the right

Step 2
Tension loop with thumb and middle finger of left hand and hold the tail securely in place with your right hand

Step 3
Tensioning the working yarn with your left index finger, insert needle through loop, wrap the yarn around the needle from front to back and pull through loop

Step 4
Without inserting needle through loop, wrap working yarn around needle from front to back

Using right index finger to hold loops in place, repeat Steps 3 and 4 until the correct number of stitches have been cast on

Transfer your stitches on to double-pointed needles, join in the round and start knitting. When you’re ready, pull the yarn tail to close the centre hole