Don't be afraid of Cables

Creating cables

Knitting cables is a technique of knitting that makes the knitting look like ropes or cables, arrows, or honeycomb patterns.  Cables frequently twist, turn and loop around each other.  Cables create a look that is both amazing and incredible.  Looking at a traditional aran sweater and imagining knitting your own can be daunting.

Aran sweaters were first made and still come from the Aran Islands which are off the west coast of Ireland.  The most traditional sweaters are off-white in color because that was the color of the wool produced by the sheep.   Women of the Aran Islands, tightly knit sweaters for their families providing a warm and nearly waterproof garment.

Many wonderful books have been written about the history of aran sweaters.  The stories of unfortunate drowned Irish fisherman being identified based on the unique patterns of their aran sweaters which were used by families or village.

If you're interested in trying cables, DO NOT start with a full sweater.  One of the major reasons is that the gauge of cabled knit is much different from the gauge of regular knitting.  To find the gauge of cabled knit is unique to the knitter and take a bit of time to develop consistently.

But don't be scared by cables.  Try something like this.  This is a small cable; a simple 2 X 2 cable.  It's made by "moving" or cabling 2 stitches.  Cables are done in units.  A 2 X 2 cable is done by moving 2 stitches to a separate needle holding them in front of the work, knitting the next 2 stitches, and then holding the other needle and knitting the 2 stitches on the other needle.  This creates a small cable moving to the right.  That's it.

The more rows between cables the further apart the twists;  the fewer the rows between the cables the tighter the twist.  Don't be afraid of cables; start small and see what happens.