To boldly go where many knitters have gone before
26 Aug 2009 6 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: cable, cables, cabling, coffee, knitting, ravelry, supplies, technique, youtube
A while back, I saw an ad on Facebook for a knitted coffee sleeve that had a cable running down the side. Being a knitter, my first response was not “where can I buy that?”, it was “I wonder if the pattern’s on Ravelry?” Surely enough, the pattern was on Ravelry, (actual pattern link here) and for free. The only problem was, I had no idea how to cable. Has that ever stopped me? No. That’s how I knit: find a pattern I like, then learn the techniques out of necessity with help of my mother, Ravelry, and YouTube.
I didn’t have a fancy cable needle, so I found a tiny enough DPN and went to town. It came out great, and since then I’ve knit quite a few for myself and friends for a yarn replacement donation (and latte fund donation) of $5 (drop me a line if you don’t want to make on yourself, I’m always down with making these). My mother and I even co-designed our own pattern, which is still up for sale (see Hugs and Kisses or order the pattern here). I later tried a cable needle and found that it was really difficult compared to the double point needle. I later learned that some people don’t even use a cable needle at all!!
While I’ve read how to cable without a cable needle or DPN, I don’t want to try it. Not because it sounds difficult, but I am scared to death of dropping stitches, and to me the anxiety caused by the free floating stitches while you are rearranging them is not worth the extra second or two I save.
The source of my anxiety, click for the blog it was taken from
I’ve learned from my knitting group and others that pretty much everyone has their own method of cabling and prefers their method to others. I like using a DPN, but some people have complained that stitches slide off too easily. I find this is easily fixed by resting the other end(s) of the needle(s) on my leg, or by knitting tight enough for the stitches to stay on.
What do you think, fellow knitters? What do you use to cable with, and why do you like that way? Do cables look better/worse without a cable needle? Inquiring minds want to know!
xoxo, Purl Girl
Aug 26, 2009 @ 23:36:05
Hello, I came across this blog from a Ravelry thread and now I’ve got it bookmarked!
I learned to cable a few months ago for a project that only involved very small cables, but many of them. I quickly decided I’d go mad if I had to use a cable needle every five stitches, so I looked up how to cable without a needle. Like you, I was quickly terrified at the thought of dropping stitches, so I figured out my own way. By slipping various groups of stitches back and forth, you can transpose the two sets of stitches before you ever knit them, and you never need to take a stitch completely off the needle. Say you want to do a left twist in a four-stitch-wide cable. You slip two stitches together to the right needle (always knitwise), slip two more stitches together, then slip all four stitches back. If you want a right twist, slip all four first and then do the pairs. Obviously this becomes more awkward for wider cables, but it’s far preferable to any of the alternatives, for me.
Aug 27, 2009 @ 00:12:15
Thanks for that tip, I like the idea of keeping them on the needle like that; I’ll have to give it a try!
Aug 27, 2009 @ 00:01:48
J-shaped. Wood. Period.
Aug 27, 2009 @ 01:12:20
I still prefer the cable needle method, although I couldn’t find my cable needle recently, and had to improvise with a toothpick.
Aug 30, 2009 @ 20:51:15
I keep finding great new variations to do cables. I will try musesusans also and put it on my blog. I have two other methods posted there, one that uses a third needle in the left hand, which I found on ravelry, and one I came up with which uses a crochet hook to rearrange loops before knitting. Take a look at http://www.knitforbrains.net.
Yes, to each her/his own. I can’t do the pinch method. Too scary. I’m glad there are other ways.
Sep 16, 2009 @ 14:17:06
I use a crochet stitch holder.. the almost-closed circle allows me to hold 6 or less stitches without them falling out.