Alternating needles to avoid magic loop

I’m making my first sweater sweater and am currently working on the sleeves. I didn’t have trouble with magic loop during the collar or yolk but am not enjoying using magic loop on the sleeves. I was thinking about how when switching to a different needle size, you just start knitting with the new needle. Could I use this technique to avoid magic loop? I have two size 9 circular needles (the size the pattern calls for). Can I not just take the free needle and knit all of the stitches onto it and then take the newly free needle and knit all of the stitching onto that? Alternating back and forth?