That's me, "crazy-for-cables Kathleen." I've been working on my Lapis Yoke Pullover, which is cable-less. I'm almost done and I'm thinking about my next project, which must have cables.
I'm considering the Cable-Down Raglan by Stephanie Japel, featured in
the new eBook,
A Step-by-Step Guide to Knitting Cables with 4 Staff Favorite Patterns by the Interweave Knits Staff. Here's Editor Eunny Jang to tell you all about it:
Knitting cables is one technique that epitomizes the free hand we knitters have to shape and mold our fabric as it grows. All cables—the whole lot of them, from simple ropes to complex panels to eye-boggling allover fabrics—are really just stitches knitted out of order, forcing the stitches to cross over one another. When combined with knit/purl texture, as cables usually are, some of the stitches appear to come forward, while others appear to recede, creating the illusion of individual "strands" that move across the surface of a plain fabric.
Cables are perennially popular, and with good reason—from simple rope cables to intricate braid- and knot-like motifs, cables are just plain fun to knit. In this exclusive eBook from Interweave Knits, we'll walk through a series of projects that will have you cabling the most complicated textures in no time.
—Eunny Jang, from A Step-by-Step Guide to Knitting Cables with 4 Staff Favorite
Patterns
This Cable-Down is worked in the round from the top down, in one piece, so the only finishing is a small seam in each underarm and weaving in the ends. The Lapis Yoke is the same construction, so I'm used to that.
The only issue I really have with top-down sweaters is that it's a lot of knitting in my lap when I get to the sleeves and it's a pain to knit the sleeves in the round because they get twisted up, especially at the beginning when you're knitting close to the armhole.
I worked the first sleeve on 16-inch needles and I didn't enjoy it, to say the least. For the second sleeve, I used the Magic Loop method, which was much easier because I just flipped it back and forth so it didn't get twisted. It took me a week to knit the first sleeve because I kept putting it down out of frustration and it took me just two evenings to finish the second sleeve! Mischief managed.
Back to the Cable-Down Pullover, though. Here are the details: The center-front cable panel, worked over 26 sts, is worked from the neck to the hem of the body. At the waist, smaller cables are introduced on either side of the front cable (mirrored right and left and separated by a two-stitch knit rib) and continue around the back (also mirrored right to left). The sleeves are worked in reverse stockinette stitch, with the same arrangement of large and small cables.
This is an advanced project, and if decide to knit this one it'll be the most complicated cable knitting project I've tackled. I'm up for it, though, especially with the help provided in A Step-by-Step Guide to Knitting Cables with 4 Staff Favorite
Patterns.
It's especially great if you're wondering how to knit cables, or even if you
just need a refresher course.
Cheers,
