Saturday, March 17, 2007

Howdy ho!

Hi everybody! I've only been knitting socks for a few weeks now, but I'm in love with this pattern and am dying to try it. My Knit Picks Gloss yarn came in today, and it's a gorgeous blue. I'm trying to write a big paper for school, but as soon as the draft is done I'm casting on. I've only done cables once, so if anyone has tips for doing these socks without the cable needle, I'll welcome them!

The yarn:

3 comments:

jill said...

Busybee,

There are several great tutorials on the web for cabling without a needle. Grumperina has one with pictures. If you want email help, shout my way(sewjillquilts (AT) verizon (DOT) net) and I'll walk you through them. Once you learn to do without that cable needle, you'll wonder why someone thought it was easier with one!

I'm also willing to share my color-coded chart with anyone who like it. :o)

KnittingAgent said...

I'm using a sort of hybrid technique on my cables - instead of an actual double-pointed cable needle I'm using a T-pin to move stitches front or back and then slipping them back onto the left needle for working.

I tried the non-needled version for a second but my yarn and tension don't allow well for it; too much chance of dropping stitches (did drop one actually and kind of fudged the fix...oh well.)

Good luck!

CynCyn said...

I cable with and without a cable needle. It depends on how tightly plied the yarn is, how complex the cable, and how small the needles.

So far, knitting with wooden (Brittany) US2 DPNs, I have been only moderately successful cabling w/o, in fact, foudn it faster to cable with. When I switched over to using my addi turbos, it was much easier to cable without. A tightly plied yarn (like cherry tree hill, or koigu) is easier to cable than a loftier yarn.

Love the color of yarn you chose! Can't wait to see it knit up.