Knit for Brains dot Net

RE-EDITED ON 8-28-2009

Hi there,

The other day I was pleased to find out how to do cables without a cable needle, but the more I experiment with it the less excited I am about the technique. The rest of this post introduces that technique and there is a link to a video that shows how, but I have a better way that came to me this morning, a gift from the knitting angels, Knitatron and Perlael. (You can take that tongue in cheek.) Read the post A New and Better Way to Knit Cables.

When I first got into knitting I discovered that cables were strangely exciting to me. I had to restrain myself from buying cable pattern books. (I was unable to do this with sock books). I still long for the gray cable vest I saw in one book. They just look, well, “hot,” not just warm.

I’ve only been knitting a couple of months now and after learning and practicing the basics I’ve settled on my first two real projects. On is a practice sock, primarily to test the Sock Wizard software, and the other is a scarf in dark red super-wash wool by Cascade. The pattern I picked is called Fountains, and I got it out of the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns by Sterling Books. It’s a complex mix of little cable crossovers and lace (a guy would say it has holes in it. It’s NOT lace!). The pattern doesn’t look feminine to me, and has a great multi-level effect. Here’s a picture.

Yeah, I know it’s pretty advanced for a beginner, but one reason I’m doing knitting is to develop concentration. This should about do it. Anyway, on my first attempt I didn’t know how to do a cable without a cable needle and it was very clumsy working with and around the cable needle and left needle. It also introduced the risk of my left needle slipping and me losing some loops from it.

The fountains pattern has a twenty stitch wide repeat by twelve rows. In that block there are nine crossovers! Trying to do it with a cable needle I gave up after the first three. Then on the very next day I was browsing around the web and found a video on doing cables without a needle in Portuguese knitting style. The no-needle cable technique is better watched than explained, so I won’t bother here. And even though it is Portuguese style the trick works for all styles of knitting. Here’s the video:

Portuguese Knitting Lesson – Left Twist

So, that video is useful in demonstrating this method, but in practice it’s not much easier than using a cable needle. I’m sure with more practice I would get better, but honestly it wasn’t fun to work this trick. I tried this on worsted weight wool with #8 needles and it was very precarious. I nearly lost loops a few times, and the tightness that is inherent in the process of crossing stitches like this made it more difficult.

I almost gave up on my Fountains scarf again. Then this morning I tried an idea that came to me when I was trying this no-needle trick, and my idea was much easier. It uses a crochet hook. I have complete instructions in the post A New and Better Way to Knit Cables.

So I’m back to the fountains pattern and very happy to see I’ll be able to work cables with greater ease in the future. For a while there I thought I would just have to give up on them again. I’m saved!

By the way, I have a book called Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch that has some cool patterns of cables with the cable winding around yarnover holes! Very cool. Built-in ventilation! And like I said, I’m starting my first sock. I will have a post or three on that soon. I’m using the magic loop technique with one circular needle, which is great. After a test sock I will try something with cables or something.

Thanks again.

Eric