Knitters often have one or two stitching methods they haven't ever quite tackled and find frightening, especially if they just started knitting or just picked it back up after years of not knitting. One of those methods is cabling, or cable stitches. These intricate, impressive designs usually look much more complicated than they actually are. Here is a simple way to think about cables.
What Is a Cable Stitch?
A knitted cable stitch is simply a stitch whose order has changed on the needles. To create cable stitches, certain loops (stitches) are moved to a separate needle--usually a cable needle--and then reinserted further down the row. Cable stitch patterns use a combination of numbers of stitches moved, type of stitch used and number of rows. Most cables repeat a certain number of times, which requires a specific number of rows to be stitched.
Moving Stitches to Make Cables
In order to create a cable stitch pattern, knit or purl stitches must cross over each other. For that to be accomplished, stitches must be removed from the regular lineup on the needle and reinserted after other stitches have been knitted or purled. For instance, there might be twelve stitches in a row. The cable pattern itself will use a certain number of stitches and then the stitches around the cable will usually be consistently knits or purls so that the cable pattern "pops," or stands out from the rest of the knitted fabric.
The knitter might knit four purl stitches, then make the cable pattern using the next four stitches. This would be done using the following method: after the first four stitches of the row have been purled, the next two stitches are placed on a separate needle (usually a cable needle) and held either to the front or the back of the knitting as specified by the pattern instructions. The two stitches now available on the needle are then knitted. The two stitches held on the cable needle are then placed back on the needle and knitted. Then the following four stitches are purled.
An Experiment to Understand Cables
In essence, all the knitter has done is changed the order of two of the stitches on the needle. Think of it this way: there are four garments hanging in a closet. They are numbered 1-4 from left to right. If the two right hangers (3 and 4) are set to the other side of the two left hangers (1 and 2) without reversing their order, the hangers would then be numbered 3, 4, 1, 2. If it were knitting, the knitter would have just made a cable.
Hold In Front vs. Hold In Back
The only real "trick" to cables is whether the extra stitches are held in front of or in back of the knitting. If they are held in front, the cable will cross in front of the other stitches and look like it leans to the left. If stitches are held in back, the cable will cross in back and will look like it leans to the right.
With this simple concept in mind, the cablephobia can be quelled and it should make more sense when a knitting pattern instructs the knitter to "place two stitches on a cable needle held in front, knit two stitches and then knit the two stitches from the cable needle."
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