Cable knitting is, to me, more of a winter project, but I don’t really know why. I guess I associate cables with big, warm sweaters covered in cable patterns (even though I’ve never knit one of those) so they feel like something you should want to make in the winter. But the truth is, cables are for all times of year.
Cable knitting is a technique that seems complicated until you know how it works. Cables are made by working stitches out of order from the way they are presented on the needle. To make that work, you hold some stitches temporarily (on a cable needle or spare double-pointed knitting needle) then you work some stitches from the left hand needle, then you work the stitches from the cable needle.
Whether those stitches were held to the back of the front, how the stitches of the cable and the stitches around them are worked (knit or purl) and how often the cable is twisted determine how a cable looks. So just like regular knitting can do a lot of things with just knit and purl stitches, cables can look a lot of different ways just by changing up a few basic moves.
If you’ve never knit cables before, it’s a great idea to start with some swatches of basic cables before embarking on a cabled project.
This post from Handy Little Me includes eight basic cables, including cables worked on 4 or 6 stitches and twisted to the right or left, a 12-stitch cable you might see called staghorn cable, and one she calls cells that you might find elsewhere called a honeycomb cable.
Once you’ve worked a few of these with cables turned in different directions, you’ll be ready to take on some cable knitting projects. I love a project like this hat as a first cable project because there’s only a little bit of cabling to do, or check out this collection of skill-building cable knitting patterns.
[Photo: Handy Little Me]
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