Teach Yourself Visually Knitting

Cables look more complicated than
they actually are. If you can knit, purl,
put stitches on a holder, and count,
you can make a simple cable.
You make basic cables by holding
one or more stitches on a cable needle
to the front or the back of your work,
knitting the next one or more stitches
from the left needle, and then knitting
the stitches from the cable needle.
Whether you hold the stitches to the
back or front determines which direc-
tion the cable crosses.

To practice making a cable, you need needles, yarn, a row counter, and a cable
needle. Cast on 16 stitches and then work rows 1 and 2 shown below to set up
for the cables. Your cable will be worked on the 6 stitches at the center, with 5
stitches of reverse stockinette stitch on either side. Remember to click your row
counter ahead each time you complete a row.

1 Row 1 (RS): P5, k6, p5.

2 Row 2 (WS): K5, p6, k5. Row counter

Cable needle

Simple Back Cross Cable

Make Simple Cables.

3 Row 3 (cable row): P5, slip the next 3 stitches
to a cable needle as if to purl and hold at back
of work (a). Knit the next 3 stitches from the
left needle. Now use the right needle to knit
the 3 stitches from the cable needle, starting
with the first stitch that was slipped onto the
needle (b), p5.

4 Row 4: Repeat row 2.

5 Repeat rows 1–4 for back cross, or right,
cable.
Note:If knitting from the cable needle feels awkward, try
slipping the held stitches back to the left needle, without
twisting, before knitting them.

a b