TikZ: specify label position in edge style

I am writing many small graphs, using TikZ's graphs library, which often include loops. I do not like the way the default loop left or loop right options look, so I have made my own style, called ll here.

That is fine, but when I provide a label using the quotes syntax, I have to manually place it, which isn't necessary with loop left. How can I specify in the preamble where labels should be placed?

Update: Gonzalo Medina's answer puts the labels on the proper side. I would also like them to be closer to the edge, like when I use left=-2pt in the code below. Is that possible?

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{graphs}
\usetikzlibrary{quotes}

\tikzset{ll/.style={in=210,out=150,distance=3mm},
dot/.style={circle,fill,inner sep=2pt}}

\begin{document}

\tikz \graph {a/[dot] --[ll,"1" left=-2pt] a};  What I want to see.

\tikz \graph {a/[dot] --[ll,"1"] a};  What I want to type.

\tikz \graph {a/[dot] --[loop left,"1"] a};  The loop left' option knows'' what to do.

\end{document}


I suggest a different definition of the ll adjusting the in and out values:

The code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{graphs}
\usetikzlibrary{quotes}

%\tikzset{
%  ll/.style={
%    in=210,
%    out=150,
%    distance=3mm,
%    looseness=8
%    },
%}

\makeatletter
\tikzset{
ll/.style={
in=150,
out=210,
loop,
min distance=3mm,
every node/.append style={inner xsep=1pt}
},
dot/.style={circle,fill,inner sep=2pt}
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\tikz \graph {a/[dot] --[ll,"1"] a};  What I get with the \texttt{ll}a style.

\tikz \graph {a/[dot] --[loop left,"1"] a};  The \texttt{loop left} option knows'' what to do.

\end{document}

• You are right: swapping the "in" and "out" parameters results in the label on the left side. Thanks! Ideally, I could also have the labels placed closer to the loop (as with left=-2pt.) – Nick Matteo Dec 7 '14 at 4:25
• @Kundor Please see my updated answer. – Gonzalo Medina Dec 7 '14 at 5:10
• Thanks, that works. (I ended up going with inner xsep=.1111em, and inner ysep=.2666em` for the analogous up- and down-loops. – Nick Matteo Dec 7 '14 at 20:06