Rainbow Junkie

Starting the cables!

Following on from last week’s post I decided to start working on the cabled cushion cover.

First I made a sample swatch. SampleFor the first part I cast on 20 stitches to check the tension. As usual, I discovered that I knit to the right tension using the needle size recommended.

I then worked a few rows of the simple braid, to check I could do it.

Then I cast on an extra four stitches at each end to give 28 stitches so I could practice the more complicated part of the pattern which is charted over 24 stitches. (Two stocking stitches added at each end).

I was fine until about row 6/7 when I found I made mistakes and dropped a couple of stitches. (Not helped by using a too short (for me) cable needle so the stitches kept slipping off!)

Eventually I got this bit correct (or almost) after undoing a couple of rows twice!

This exercise was actually very useful as by the end I was beginning to understand the charts and to realise that the surface was either stocking stitch or reverse stocking stitch so if the stitches I needed for the next cable bit looked wrong it probably meant I wasn’t where I thought I was!

corrected one repeat
Replacement photograph!

Thus I found that I have managed to knit the first sixteen rows of the main chart, which is the repeat, and it looks okay and wasn’t as hard as I thought! I might even be able to do it in company! (I found my longer cable needles, though I seem to have mislaid the thicker one half way through!)

One repeat of cable patternHaving written the above and knitted another couple of rows I realised that I had made a mistake on the left-hand simple braid and so I had to undo a few rows. the mistake had been on row 14 of a 16 repeat so more undoing than I would have liked! You can see the mistake if you click on the thumbnail on the left!!

I  think I need about five more of the above for the full cover.

Interestingly, I am finding that my reduced energy levels and emphasis on looking after myself means that instead of the normal sense of pressure to knit or crochet all evening so as to complete the latest project and get onto the next one and thus have something for the blog, I am sometimes actually watching TV with no knitting and just pick it up when I feel in the mood. In fact I am probably watching more TV without knitting than with. I think I like this more relaxed approach.

18 comments

  3. Wow, I have yet to attempt cables. This is beautiful. I like your approach to knitting now. It becomes a chore when you are knitting for the blog. You have to just knit for yourself. So glad that you are looking after yourself.

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    • I did search around for a really attractive Celtic type cable and this was my favourite. My experience suggests that cables are not as difficult as they appear maybe you should try sometime.

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    • Since a number of people have had the same problem, I have now updated the pattern to make that part clearer. You can download the new version now. I would be grateful if you have find that I have still not got things correct (eg the total number of rows) that you will let me know. As I am not very well it was hard to concentrate and be sure I got it right.

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    • Unfortunately having got started on the next section, I now realise that I made a mistake on the last part of the simple braid on the left hand side (always the place to get things wrong!) And it show on the photograph too! Woops! Back to undoing. 😦

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