Cables

Cable knitting always look and sound a lot harder than they actually are, as soon as you’ve got the hang of knit and purl stitches, cables really are an easy step, basically all you’re doing is swapping the placement of some stitches so it creates a twist in the fabric. To do this you just introduce a third needle to ‘store’ stitches on for a minute. The number of stitches is determined by the digit in the middle of the instruction, so below we will cable 4…

C4B

C= Cable, 4 = the number of stitches ‘involved’, B = where you hold them

 The only bit that isn’t immediately obvious is how many stitches you’re actually placing on the needle, cables effectively split a section of stitches in half and swap their position so in this case there’s 4 stitches ‘involved’ so  when you reach the instruction you slide 2 stitches onto the cable needle, leave the cable needle at the back of the work, knit 2 stitches then knit the 2 stitches from the cable needle.

C4F

As above but when you’ve put the 2 stitches on the cable needle you would hold them at the front of the work – where you hold them (front or back) determines which direction the cable will twist and will be indicated in the pattern.

C10B

Exactly the same as we’ve done but you’ll put 5 stitches on the cable needle, hold them at the back of the work, knit 5 then knit the stitches from the cable needle.