Knitting Tutorial: Cabling Without a Cable Needle

It's no secret that cable needles annoy me. First of all, I can never find one when I need one. Second, knitting is fidgety enough without introducing one more needle. Afterall, I only have so many hands.

Luckily, you can knit cables without a cable needle. A word of warning, though. This method is not for the faint of heart. It involves slipping stitches completely off of your needles and letting them dangle freely for a moment.

Goodbye Cable Needle

When you knit cables, all you're really doing is switching the order of the stitches you're knitting. For example, to create a 2/2 cable, instead of knitting four stitches in order - 1, 2, 3, 4 -  you cross stitches 3 and 4 in front of or behind stitches 1 and 2 (depending on which way your cable will slant) and knit them 3, 4, 1, 2.

Usually, you use a cable needle to help shift things around. Unless you are working a really wide cable, the stitches can easily be shifted on your regular needles.

See it in Action

Recommended Pattern

If you'd like to make the 'Beekeeper Socks' shown in this tutorial, the pattern is available in my pattern shop.

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