Magic Loop

I've been fussing with a problem and have finally arrived at a solution. Since I do a lot of my knitting during my commute and the next items I want to knit are legwarmers and fingerless gloves, AND the thought of wielding five double pointed needles on the bus would

a) probably damage my knitting
b) result in the unintenional stabbing of a fellow passenger
c) send me scrambling on the floor of the bus for a dropped needle

I started looking for an alternative. For non-knititng readers, double-pointed needles are used for knitting small circumferences, although you can knit any item in the round on double-pointed needles. Traditional ganseys were knitted on long, thin steel pins (precursor of the double pointed needle). I actually enjoy knitting on five needles. It's a challenge sometimes getting started but to me, if you are knitting a lot of stitches on dpns moving from needle to needle seems to make the work go faster than using a circular needled.

I first considered knitting in the round on two circular needles. One of the problems of knitting on the bus is keeping arm and hand movements to a minimum so you aren't constantly elbowing the person next to you (something people texting or sending emails on their pdas need to master). I've learned to always sit on an inside seat where my throwing arm is next to the side of the bus to minimize this issue. I finally settled on using the magic loop technique, using one long circular needled to knit in the round. I'm currently getting the hang of it with a skein of sock yarn.

Will post results soon.