Cables

Ever look at your cables and then look at those in the magazines and books and wonder how the designer got such a tidy looking cable? Well, the answer lies in a couple of techniques that keep the stitches in the cable and right next to the cable all the same size.
• First, just like ribbing, when changing from a knit to a purl, or visa versa, bring the yarn straight back or forward and give a little tug to get rid of the slack in the yarn.
• Second, keep the stitches in the cable from stretching out by working at the tips of the needles through the cable section on a row where the stitches are crossed. You’ll be amazed at how neat and tidy those cables will look.
• Third, manipulate the stitches if necessary to get rid of looseness. Loose stitches usually occur on the left side of the cable if the cable is a left or front cross and on the right side if the cable is a right or left cross.

Cables While Knitting in the Round

If you are knitting a cabled pattern in the round, it’s sometimes difficult to see/know when you are on a cable round as opposed to when you are knitting back and forth. There are a few tricks to being able to count the rounds which I’ve illustrated below.



This is my preferred method and what I think is the easy method.

Cable Needles

If you still have the old style plastic hair picks (or beg a couple from your hairdresser), they make good cable needles. You can push them into the yarn while holding the cable stitches and while you store the needles between making cables.