Cabling Without a Cable Needle

Did you know that it's possible to knit cables without the use of cable needles?

Filed under: Knitting, How To, Crafts

Knitting cables without cable needles takes practice, but once you understand the mechanics of cable construction, you'll be creating these exciting (and fun) patterns with nothing except your yarn and two needles.

Steps:

1. Imagine you are knitting a six-stitch cable. One at a time, and making sure to keep the yarn to the back, slip the first three cable stitches onto the RH needle (Image 1).

2. Keeping the "float" on the back fairly loose, knit the next three stitches (Image 2).

3. Slide the LH needle to the front into the stitches that were slipped (the "wallflower" stitches).

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4. Form an X with the needles. This is integral to the success of the cable.

5. Holding the stitches just under the X with your thumb and letting the left index finger support the back of the piece, carefully slide the RH needle out of all six stitches in the cable. This leaves the three wallflowers on the LH needle.