Hooked On Anime

The magic ring is what I do, yes - you can see a drawing of it in my picture here. However, there are other methods. One of the easiest methods is to chain three, use the second two chain stitches as the first stitch of your first round, and make all of the rest of the stitches from the first round into the first chain. (I hope that made sense...) Another easy way to start a ring is to chain four, slip stitch through the first chain, and then make the stitches for the first round in the middle of that ring of chain stitches.

I personally learned the magic ring from the amigurumi tutorial videos at Hook and Needles (scroll down to step three - or don't, if you feel like doing a little review). I've also got some other tutorial options linked here.

I hope that helps!