Review: Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook

Norah Gaughan is well known in the knitting world for her geometric feats of knitting. Her projects tend to turn knitting on its head in lots of different ways, so its no surprise that one of her particular obsessions when it comes to knitting is working with and designing cable patterns.

Her book Norah Gaughan’s Knitting Cable Sourcebook includes more than 150 original cable patterns, as well as instructions for 15 patterns to use them in. (See the patterns on Ravelry.)

The really cool part is that each cable pattern is shown in a large swatch, almost always with both written and charted instructions, and the book gives a Stockinette Stitch equivalent rating to each pattern, which tells you how many stitches in plain Stockinette the pattern uses up.

This is really cool because it makes it easy to substitute cable patterns in the projects. If, for example, you love the skirt but want to use a different cable, you know that the pattern used, called macrame, has an SSE of 32, so any pattern or patterns you want to use need to work out to 32 as well for the skirt to come out the same size.

Looking for more Cable-styled knitting patterns? Check out these Cable Knit Patterns on Etsy

The numbers are also helpful if you want to take a cable out of a project, because you know how many plain stitches need to replace it. If you’re designing your own projects you will still need to knit a swatch but you’ll have an idea of how much space the cables will take up before you begin.

I would say this is a book for experienced cable knitters who want to more deeply explore how cables are made and how to develop their own variations. While the basics of cabling are pretty simple, the patterns presented here get complicated pretty quickly, so a newer knitter approaching this book would need a lot of confidence to carry on. Information about which patterns are reversible or look good on the wrong side, how projects look worked in different yarns and variations on different cable patterns will be helpful to knitters of all skill levels.

The sections on getting started, yarn selection, chart reading and troubleshooting are helpful, and the patterns are nice. But looking through the stitch patterns is sure to inspire you to want to knit your own projects, whether a giant cabled sampler made out of a bunch of swatches, a slouchy hat with a giant cable or a delicate baby blanket with cables inspired by flowers. This is a msut have for cable lovers and might just turn some people who aren’t wild about cables (like me) toward the cable knitting camp.

About the book: 276 pages, hardcover, 15 patterns, 153 stitch patterns. Published October 2016 by Abrams, retail price $29.95.

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Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal.

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles.

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges.

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to.

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]

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