Make a circle of yarn and pull a loop through in the usual manner.  

Pull loop through and tighten by tugging on yarn attached to the ball of yarn 

Check that the tail slides easily so that you can close the loop later.




Make your first stitch a knit stitch if you are casting on an odd number, a YO if you are casting on an even number. Alternate knit stitches and YO.




Repeat until you have the number of stitches you wish. You cannot end with a YO, so the last stitch must be either a knit or purl stitch.



Until you have several rows of stitches on your needles, hold the stitches in place carefully whenever you move them. Move the stitches to the cable part of the circular needle. Fold them in half and pull the cable out between the center stitches. Now, locate the needle closest to the yarn from the ball of yarn, loop it around until aait meets the point of the other needle and knit across the 4 stitches. Pull on the loop until the other needle is lined up for knitting, loop the cable around again and knit across the second 4 stitches. You are now knitting with magic loop technique.

Even with only the cast on and one row of knitting the center can be closed by pulling on the tail of yarn. Later, tighten up the tail of yarn, take a back stitch and then work in the tail.