A Cabled Sweater to Span the Seasons

I know it’s only July as I write this, and there is a lot more summer to come in the Northern Hemisphere, but I’m already starting to think about knitting for fall. For one thing, it takes a little while to knit a sweater, and if you want to have it done when the season is right to wear it, you need to start knitting early.

Also, the things we knit for the fall or spring are often called “transition” pieces for a reason; you can wear them now when it’s cool in the evening or there’s a little too much air conditioning, and for a longer part of the day later in the year.

When it comes to All That Brass from Fatimah Hinds, I don’t know why you’d want to wait to cast on this beauty. It’s a top down raglan cardigan with two sets of cables running down the fronts. It’s worked to a slightly cropped length (though you know by now you can change that if you want, right?) and three quarter sleeves, perfect for those days when you need a little warmth but maybe not a full length sweater.

It has a scoop neck and a full set up buttons so you can wear it as open or closed as you like.

It would be as great over a sun dress or tank top as paired with a T-shirt, jeans and boots.

The pattern comes in nine sizes, with an actual measurement of 32 to 64 inches in the bust (or 81 to 162.5 cm). You can choose how much ease you like but it’s shown modeled with 2 inches/10 cm of positive ease, which sounds good if you’re going to wear something light under it. It was worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together, or you can use a single strand of DK weight to get gauge.

The pattern is available on Ravelry.

[Photo: Fatimah Hinds]

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Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

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