Knitting Cables for the First Time

I love finding crafting supplies at op/thrift/charity shops, it always inspires me to try something I might not have otherwise. Recently I found some small plastic cable needles for $1 and immediately added knitting cables to my list.

Previously, I’ve tried some different types of knitting patterns including lace and ribs, but cabling has been in my ‘seems like it’s going to be difficult’ basket, I'd like to try them but am a bit daunted at the prospect.

In reality, cabling is actually surprisingly easy, though I did start by reading the cabling chart the wrong way! Left to right rather than right to left.

I picked the October Hat of the Month free cabled knitted beanie pattern from Kelbourne Woolens it seemed beginner friendly with only needing to make knit stitches on the cable and being able to knit in the round so no need for seams.

Immediately I picked out some lavender-coloured pure wool from the West Yorkshire Spinners - being from Yorkshire I think I bought it more for the brand name than anything else.

I’m still mystified by how the pattern translates to the cabling, and if I’ve accurately managed to recreate the pattern in knitting. But it was entered into a Country Woman's competition and got some lovely feedback from the judge - great tension, cabled well and a good job.

I played a bit of thread chicken with the yarn, I reduced the length of the ribbing and was getting a bit worried towards the end of the second ball of wool, so accepted that there wouldn’t be another round of the cabling pattern. There wasn’t an opportunity to get another ball because I purchased the wool from a specialist shop a few hours away from home, and I had a deadline for the competition.

I had a slight mishap with the blocking of the beanie, not realising quite how much the beanie would stretch and made it WAY too big, it is intended to be long so there is a sufficient turn-up for double coverage on the ears.

So I took all my previous mistakes with accidentally shrinking wool into consideration, soaked the hat in hot water and then shocked it by following it with cold water and then actually not blocking it at all and just allowing it to dry. It wasn't that much of the wrong size before blocking just some of the stitches needed to be corrected.

The instruction to cable left and cable right took a while to get my head around it, couldn’t we just call it back or forward?! I'll guess that there are reasons, probably more complicated than I understand at this point.

Now I can cable there is a world of possibilities open to me, though I now know that there is so much more depth than simply carrying two stitches over two stitches, with purling cables and ribbing cables.

And luckily a new arrival of pure wool came from New Zealand so I have lots to play with. Toasty ready for winter!