If we had a ball of yarn for every time someone told me ‘Oh, I can’t do cables, it’s too hard!’, I’d have a big yarn stash. (Ok… an even BIGGER stash.)
Apart from some yarn and a pair of needles, you’ll need a cable needle: a small knitting needle that’s pointy at both ends. These come in all shapes, sizes and materials – at WATG, we love brightly coloured acrylic ones!
Your standard, no-frills cable is just a section of stocking stitch which gets twisted around every few rows. That’s it. Usually, the cable has a few purl stitches on either side of it – this makes the cable really ‘pop’ out of the background fabric. When it’s time to twist your cable, this is what you do:
Watch this online tutorial to see it live in action!
1. Knit until you get to the stitches that form your cable.
2. Now slide half of the cable stitches onto your cable needle.
3. Cables can twist either to the left or to the right: in this picture, the cable on the right is twisting right, and the one on the left is twisting left.
4. Let’s start by twisting a cable to the right. To do this, hold the cable needle with the stitches on it BEHIND your knitting.
5. Just leave the cable needle where it is for now, and knit the rest of the cable stitches from the left needle.
6. Now knit the stitches that have been waiting on your cable needle.
7. To make your cable twist to the left, just hold the cable needle IN FRONT OF your knitting instead of behind it.
That’s it. Done. Not really all that scary, was it? So, now try it out for yourself: for a nice entry-level project, why not make our Moon Head Beanie? Or for something a bit more advanced, how about the River Knight Sweater?
Where is that dpn from? Trying to dind some in chunkier sizes and I don’t like using bamboo.
Hello, the cable needle comes within the knit kit.
Is the cable stitch scarf pattern available for purchase, preferably a PDF download? I understand the video tutorial, however, I don’t know what to do on the opposite side of the scarf…..or do I continue to follow the video for every row?
Thanks,
Chival
Hi there Chival,
Sorry for the delay. Yes you would then contine onto the next row
The pattern is available in the knit kit here: http://www.woolandthegang.com/shop/items/dont-speak-snood-women/knit-your-own
I love the look of cables in scarfs! I have knitted off and on for about 5 years now but it really has never moved past the initial stitch. But, this is just beautiful! And wool is one of my favorite materials for it’s soft feel and all the different colors you can find it in!