When we knit, we can include cables in our project to give it more interest, there are thousands of design possibilities and different ways to make them, so they can be made by those at all levels: from novice to advanced knitters. They are a design element that we can respect even if we have knitted nothing, but it’s worthwhile to learn to make them.
To make the cable that we show today, you don’t need to cross a single stitch or use a cable needle. All that you’ll need is a wooden crochet hook and the project that you are knitting. The way to make this cable is a bit revolutionary: we are going to slip stitches from the needle and drop them almost to the beginning of the work. Intrigued? Check out the video.
As you have seen, you will only need a crochet hook about the thickness of the yarn that you’re using for your project. In our case, we used Pima cotton in the color natural.
So that the cable comes out well, you will need the number of rows undone in your project to be some multiple of 5 (for example, 30 or 35, etc.)
- Knit until you reach the point where you would like to make your cable, keeping in mind this uses 3 stitches.
- Slip the next 3 stitches off your left needle, and drop them to row 4. You can use a marker or place a strand of yarn in another color so you don’t miss the row.
- Now, using the crochet hook, pick up the first 5 strands of yarn that you have above the 3 stitches you just dropped, and pass the strands through these stitches as if they are one stitch (as in the video).
- Continue in the same manner, picking up 5 more strands and passing them through until you have worked all of the dropped stitches.
- Place the stitch (that will be made of 5 strands) on your needle and work to the end of the row as usual.
- On the next row, a wrong side row, work until you reach the cable stitch, work it as if it was only one stitch. Work to the end of the row as usual.
You can place these cables wherever you like best, they are nice for customizing a basic sweater and give it a more daring look. Choose any of our sweaters knit in garter stitch or stockinette stitch and it will come out perfectly.
