Thursday, February 12, 2004

Cabling Without a Cable Needle

When I first read about this technique I thought You’ve got to be kidding!  Let my stitches hang in the air to unravel, drop and otherwise make my life miserable?  No way! But it doesn’t really work that way.  Cabling without a cable needle is easy, fast and, with a little care (and it’s really very little) you are always in control of your stitches.

I rather unfairly teased someone yesterday about how simple this was and later thought Okay smart-ass, put your money where your mouth is! So, with the contribution of Myria’s inestimable photographic skills, that’s what I’m doing today. :)

Ready to make the cable

1.  We’re ready, here, to make a CF6.  That is we are going to cross three stitches over the front of the work to create a front-cross, 6 stitch cable.

Picking up the crossing stitches

2.  With the right needle in front of the work, insert it, from front to back, into the 4th, 5th and 6th stitches on the left needle.

Moving the left needle

3.  With the thumb and index finger of your right hand, grasp both needles firmly and make sure that your index finger is up against the three front stitches on the left needle.  Basically you’re exerting pressure on those three stitches to make sure they stay where you want them instead of unraveling down your work.  They’ll only be free for a couple of seconds, so don’t panic :)

Carefully withdraw the left needle from all six stitches.  This leaves the picked up stitches on the end of the right needle.  Your right index finger is holding the other three stitches against the right needle and they’re not going anywhere.

Collecting the stragglers

4.  Now bring the left hand needle to the back and insert it into the loops of those three free stitches.  Everything’s under control again - you can now breathe freely :)

Crossing the stitches

5.  Move the left needle back towards the left and the right needle back towards the right.  This crosses one set of stitches over the other.

Making the transfer

6.  Move the three stitches on the end of the right needle back to the left needle. 

Now you just knit!

7.  Your cabling is now finished and you simply knit the 6 stitches of the cable as you would normally knit any old 6 stitches :)

Completed cable

8.  And there you have it!

For a CB6, a 6 stitch back-cross cable, in step 2, you would pick up those same three stitches (the 4th, 5th and 6th on the left needle) with the right needle behind the work instead of in front.

A video (.avi) is also available.  The sound quality isn’t prime, but I think it’s comprehensible.  It’s the visual you want anyway :) I thought maybe seeing the process as it’s worked might help.  This isn’t a small file though (about 3.5 megs) so those of you on dial-up might want to just right click and download the thing.  It might take a while. 

I hope all this is clear and that it helps.  This is a technique that works well for me and I wanted to share it.  But please, do your cabling in any way that’s comfortable for you and that gives you the results you want!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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1. I’ve been using this technique for a little while now. It definitely beats fiddling with cable needles and I also find that most stitches in wool or wool mix yarns don’t unravel as easily as you might fear.  Taking a couple or more stitches off the needle and just pinching them between finger and thumb while you cross the cable can also work.

   Posted by Anne  on  02/13  at  03:46 PM
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2. Hi Anne :)

   I’ll give that a try.  I tend not to be terribly dextrous so it will make me nervous, but what the heck - nothing ventured, nothing gained!  Thanks for the contribution!

   Posted by Robbyn  on  02/13  at  09:37 PM
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3. Thanks for posting this.  I am going to sit down tomorrow when I am reasonably awake and go through it carefully.  Keeping track of the cable needle sure is a pain…

   Posted by Rob  on  02/15  at  12:04 AM
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4. Hi Rob :)

   Hope it’s helpful to you!  If anything is unclear, drop me a line and we’ll work it out.

   Posted by Robbyn  on  02/15  at  12:14 AM
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